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Kathleen Cano: Performer & Artist

“Said she’d always been a dancer.”  Kathleen Cano, 63, might have been the subject of the popular Beatles' song.  She  “glided through the 1960s,” working days for the R.H. Donnelly Company, where she began as a file clerk right out of high school, climbing up to a variety of administrative positions, and her real love: “dabbling” in  community theater.    At the Tompkins Square Playhouse in New York's East Village, she danced and sang in the chorus, did some walk on parts, and discovered a latent passion for   costume design. A few years later, she moved on for a “better job, better pay” to Investors Planning Corporation, but could not stay away from the footlights for very long.  On a whim, she stepped in for a friend who was working as a go-go dancer at Trude Heller’s, the famed Greenwich Village night club.   Then “I was hooked. They liked me and hired me.  I worked my office job 5 days a week and worked dancing 5 nights a week.”   

As the Sixties ended, so did the hectic pace of Kathy Cano’s double life in New York City.  She moved to Las Vegas to work briefly in a casino, got married, had a son, and began working as a customer service representative for the Friendly Restaurant chain where she remained for 13 years. “I grew up,” she says.  

Perhaps, but tell that to her inner dancer. Back in New York City now, 35 years after she stepped on a stage for the first time, Kathy returned to the Tompkins Square Playhouse, celebrating her 60^th birthday in the chorus of their production of “Damn Yankees.”  She was also the costume designer for the show and photographer for the playbill.  

“Everyone says I should retire (that dreaded word), but I am not one to sit around in a housedress and black lace up shoes.  I have too much energy for that.  You gotta keep creating.”  In addition to photography and costume design, she has discovered a talent for drawing she didn’t know she had.  In recent years, Kathy has split her time between illustrating a children’s book, teaching crafts and designing a line of hand-made angel dolls sold exclusively at SpiritQuest Healing Center in  Slate Hill, New York.  Not so much toys as "simple rag creations," each doll has a distinctive outfit and its own name, e.g. Savannah, Lilly, Olivia, Briar.  At the moment, Kathy works at a local crafts outlet, tutoring students on the craft of wedding albums.  This summer, she plans to teach the art of mosaic stepping stones in her own garden. 

Not that she wouldn't welcome her "15-minutes," but Kathy Cano already considers herself successful.   "There are many kinds of success," she said.  "My son and my 30 year marriage are two of them."  She has also won awards for her photography and has begun college courses to fulfill a dream of earning a degree.  "Now if that children's book is a hit..." 

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