Tiler Peck was dancing before she could walk. By the time she was four-years-old she had a talent for remembering three minute dance solos. “I was dancing all the time,” says Peck who has been a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for over a decade. "My mother put me in soccer and I would leap and dance down the field.”

Working professionally since she was a child, Peck made her Broadway debut when she was 11 in Susan Stroman's revival of The Music Man. Currently living in her family's home in Bakersfield, California, she is hosting daily ballet classes on her @tilerpeck Instagram.

Peck also has a new children’s book, Katarina Ballerina, (Simon & Schuster), which she cowrote with Kyle Harris (The Inheritance). In the book Katarina has a love for dance but her feet turn in and her curly hair doesn’t always fit into a sleek bun. Katarina isn’t perfect, but at every turn, people tell her she is beautiful. “Katarina has one thing that you can't teach. She has a light within her that makes people want to watch her dance,” says Peck. “While technique can be taught, love and passion can’t. The message is for kids to own their unique gifts. That makes you stand out.”

Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network.

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