Liliana Cattaneo is Founder and Artistic Director of Xdrop; a California 501 (c) 3 Non-Profit public benefit arts organization since 2003. After growing too tall in gymnastics and placing 11th in the State, she began training in dance at Stage 7 School of Dance in her hometown of San Diego. At 17, she took her place on stages of coffeehouses and open mic nights showing her own choreography until one night Sushi Performance & Visual Art saw one of her gigs and invited her to be presented in a real theatre. Since then, her work has been presented at UCSD(San Diego),Dance Mission (San Francisco), Museum of the Living Artist(San Diego), Lyceum(San Diego), Sushi Performance & Visual Art(San Diego), Ortspace(Tucson), City Heights Performance Annex (San Diego), SDSU (San Diego), St. Cecilia's Playhouse (San Diego), Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico City), and CounterPULSE (San Francisco) among others. Xdrop was the first invited dance company from the United States to be presented in La Alborada(Tijuana)& Centro Estatal de las Artes(Mexicali). At 18, she won a 1999 Tommy Award for “Emerging Choreographer” and in 2001 was named one “Top Five” local choreographers to watch by the San Diego Union Tribune. Coronado School of the Arts has also commissioned Liliana for her repertoire. She has performed her choreography live on NBC & taped for City TV 24. Liliana has worked as Director of The Rag Dolls which premiered a weekly running neo-burlesque show in San Diego. She is Co-Producer of Off The Grid; a subsidiary company of Xdrop, which presents diverse presentations of artists in site-specific events. Xdrop is a company in residence at The Academy of Performing Arts.