Ali Block

Ali is a New York City-based professional ballet dancer.  Originally from Cleveland, OH, she trained at the former School of Cleveland Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Miami City Ballet School, with summer study at the National Ballet School of Canada, the Chautauqua Institution, Jacob’s Pillow, and BalletX.  She has danced professionally as a principal dancer with Eglevsky Ballet, a dancer with Texas Ballet Theater, a dancer with Eugene Ballet Company, and as Clara in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  She danced at the Hollywood Bowl Opening Night Gala with the LA Philharmonic, and is featured in Steve Childs’ 2009 documentary, And We Will Dance.

Her freelance work includes Thomas/Ortiz Dance, Neglia Ballet, Movement Headquarters Ballet Company, Claudia Schreier Dance, Lydia Johnson Dance, Brookoff Dance, and principal guestings across the country.  Her repertoire includes the title role in Cinderella, the title role in The Snow Maiden, the principal role in Rite of Spring, Clara, Dewdrop, and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, the March Hare in Alice in Wonderland, a principal role in Suite Dreams, and soloist roles in works by George Balanchine, Ben Stevenson, Gerald Arpino, Agnes deMille, Claudia Schreier, Amy Hall Garner, Emery LeCrone, and numerous other choreographers.

Ali graduated from Columbia University in 2020 as the salutatorian of her class, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and as the recipient of the Jennifer A. Pack Prize for excellence in the study of psychology.  In addition to dancing, she currently works as the Lab Manager and a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Rivera MINDt Lab at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, Department of Neurology.