Warwick fifth grader will dance in ‘The Nutcracker’ at Lincoln Center

WARWICK — The New York Post calls George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” the “Christmas show of all Christmas shows,” featuring more than 200 performers, a one-ton Christmas tree that magically grows from 12 to 40 feet and hundreds of dazzling costumes on the stage at Lincoln Center.
And this year it includes dancer Pierson Hall, a fifth-grader from Warwick.
He appears in the first part of the production in what's described as a long (40 minutes) party scene; he'll be dancing with a girl partner for about 20 minutes.
Pierson began his dance career with hip-hop at age four at Simply Dance in Vernon, N.J. At age five he was invited to perform with his sister’s ballet school, Black Dirt Dance in Pine Island, and fell in love with the art of ballet.
Under the direction of Eve McClanahan, he appeared in both group and individual performances. At age seven he joined the all boys dance program at The Joffrey School of Ballet in New York City.
Simultaneously, Pierson has furthered his dance education at Simply Dance in both tap and jazz. He also was a member of the company’s competition team last season, winning several awards in both duet and team performances.
For the second summer he and his Simply Dance duet partner, Delaney Mackey, have enhanced their partnering skills with traditional ballroom dances at Ballroom Magic in Vernon, N.J., under the guidance of Katy Fisher.
Pierson is currently dancing at the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center where he has lessons three days a week after school. He is part of the specially funded Boys Program, which provides tuition-free ballet training for boys aged 6 to 14 who are enrolled in levels below Intermediate Men to increase the number of well-trained American male ballet dancers.