Valerie Lawson is a journalist and author, and one of Australia’s leading dance writers. She was the foundation editor of Good Weekend, arts editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, dance writer for the Herald for 15 years and dance critic for The Australian Financial Review. She has written articles for the souvenir programs of the Australian Ballet and many visiting dance companies. Valerie was awarded a BPhil (Hons) in dance history from Durham University in 2002, and in 2012 was the Nancy Keesing Fellow at the State Library of New South Wales where she researched the dance collections of the library.