Ali Block
Ballet Strength, Stretch, & Operations Manager
Ali is living out her NYC dream
I moved to New York City in 2014, after five years dancing with ballet companies across the country. I wanted to take a stab at dancing as a freelancer in New York City. Although the prospect of being a freelancer and living in this city scared me, it was time for a challenge. Now I’ve been here for five years, I’ve had more opportunities as a dancer than I could have imagined, and I’ve met the most wonderful and interesting people. My dream since the age of 8 has been to have a professional ballet career, and I feel lucky every day to do what I love here in New York City and beyond.
She loves to tell stories through ballet
There are so many things that I love about ballet, but I think I’m drawn most to the expressive, dramatic, story-telling side of this artform. I love creating a character, expressing an emotional state or experience, or interpreting a story through movement. Last year, I had the opportunity to create the title role in Eglevsky Ballet’s Cinderella in 2018. This was a role that was out of my comfort zone, so it was especially gratifying to ultimately step onstage and share the character I had been developing with the audience. It felt so magical to be finally performing the role, and I was proud of the work that I had put into it.
Ali and Eliza are really good friends 🙂
I am so excited to teach at the Ballet Spot!! Eliza is a good friend of mine, and I’ve been so happy to see her dream of the Ballet Spot grow into such a success. I’ve enjoyed taking her classes since she started the Ballet Spot, and since I’ve started building some teaching experience in the past year, I jumped at the opportunity to share my passion for dance with those who want to learn more about it.
She has dreams beyond dancing
When I retire from dancing, I hope to be a psychologist and to do psychology research. I’ve been working part-time towards my bachelor’s in psychology at Columbia, and I’ll graduate in May 2020. I’m excited to pursue that as a second career down the road. I also hope to have a family one day.
