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For 26 years, the name Lorilee Silvaggio was known to KCBX listeners through her weekly show “From Ballet to Broadway.” And for decades, she was known to the larger San Luis Obipo community for her world of dance. Lorilee Silvaggio died from ovarian cancer in late 2020 at age 73. KCBX’s Greta Mart spoke to people who knew Silvaggio well in this remembrance of the late San Luis Obispo trailblazer.
Born and raised in Modesto, Lorilee Silvaggio studied ballet from a young age.
“My mother and her sister, Deanna, also trained in San Francisco,” said Alexa Silvaggio. “So her parents would drive her into the city to train classically. And by the age of 18, my mother was actually a professional ballroom dancer and winning competitions internationally.”