Athleticism & Artistry

Alessandra Ferrari-Wong was born and raised in Westwood, NJ. She began her dance training with hula at age three, studying under Luana Haraguchi, Kumu Hula of Hālau Hula O Na Mele 'Aina O Hawai'i. At the age of seven, she began her ballet training at Ballet Arts New Jersey under the direction of Diana Turner Hauser. She has attended summer intensives with American Ballet Theater and Colorado Ballet under scholarship. In addition to being a dancer, she is also a visual artist and recently earned her BFA degree in Art and Art History from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. There she continued her dance training with Antonio Douthit- Boyd and Christine Knoblauch-O’Neal. While in St. Louis, Ms. Ferrari-Wong also worked with Jock Soto and performed in his piece “My Soul Remainer” and placed first in the National Society of Arts and Letters 2017 Regional Ballet Competition. In 2020, she joined New York Dance Project as an Apprentice under the direction of Davis Robertson and Nicole Duffy, and performed roles in Gerald Arpino’s Birthday Variations, and worked with choreographers Maleek Washington, Ephrat Asherie, and Madison Hicks. This is her second season with Chattanooga Ballet.

Hannah began her pre-professional training at North Atlanta Dance Theatre under the direction of Michael Garrison. She attended summer intensive programs at The Royal Ballet School’s Upper School in London, Nashville Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet. Most recently, Hannah was an artist with Lexington Ballet for three seasons where she performed as The Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen and Dew Drop in The Nutcracker, Peter Rabbit in The Magical Tales of Beatrix Potter, and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Prior to Lexington, Hannah worked with Louisville Ballet where she performed the roles of Principal Rose in Val Caniparoli’s The Brown-Forman Nutcracker, a Soloist Shade in La Bayadère, and Zulma in Giselle. Since joining Chattanooga Ballet in 2021, she has performed as Calliope in Brian McSween’s Three Muses for Apollo as well as Snow Queen and Dew Drop in The Nutcracker. She has also premiered in several new works with the company, including Autumn Eckman’s Wax Wane and My’Kal Stromile’s Three Theories of Choreographic Discourse. Outside of performing, Hannah is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Positive Psychology and Data Analytics from University of Pennsylvania. She also loves teaching classes and sharing her passion for ballet with students of all ages. Hannah is very excited to dance with Chattanooga Ballet for her third season!

Mary Kate Shearer is from Ridgeland, Mississippi. She trained from age three with Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet under the direction of Jennifer Beasley. Mary Kate attended numerous summer intensive programs, including Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and the School of the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. Mary Kate joined the Indiana University Ballet Theater in January 2018. With IUBT, she performed the roles of Yellow Lady in Martha Graham’s Diversion of Angels and Angry Girl in The Concert by Jerome Robbins, and also danced featured roles in Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe, George Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht and Allegro Brillante, Dark Elegies by Anthony Tudor, and in The Nutcracker, choreographed by Michael Vernon. In May 2021, Mary Kate graduated from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in English and a Certificate in Global French. Since joining Chattanooga Ballet in 2021, Mary Kate's roles have included the Dewdrop in The Nutcracker, an ugly stepsister in Artistic Director Brian McSween's Cinderella, and Polyhymnia in McSween’s Three Muses for Apollo. She has also premiered multiple new contemporary and ballet works with the company, notably including Emilia Sandoval's Then, As In Now and McSween's Capture. As an instructor with the school of Chattanooga Ballet, Mary Kate loves sharing the joy of ballet with her students. Beyond ballet, Mary Kate is an amateur musicologist of sorts, and has embarked on a journey to listen to the top 500 albums of all time, as discerned by the magazine Rolling Stone. Follow her musical journey @mklistens on Instagram. This is Mary Kate’s second season with Chattanooga Ballet.

Pierceton is a native of Summerville SC, a small town just outside of Charleston, where his passion for dance began at the young age of two. Pierceton was first introduced to tap and gymnastics classes at the Tapio School of Dance and Gymnastics. Pierceton continued his training in commercial dance techniques including jazz, tap and contemporary, competing in multiple national competitions such as The Dance Awards. Pierceton was later introduced to concert dance techniques such as ballet and various American Modern techniques including Graham and Horton. Pierceton is a recent alumnus of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, a residential high school (C.O 2020) where he completed his high school education with a rigorous focus on dance training under the direction of Dance Chair Josee Garant and President Cedrick Aderly. Pierceton hopes to take part in the lives of other aspiring dancers, particularly young men who oftentimes are unable to have a male role model in the dance world.

Tiana Ozolins was born in Antananarivo, Madagascar and grew up in Southwest Virginia. She began dancing at the Center of Dance under Carol Crawford-Smith, a former dancer with Dance Theater of Harlem. She continued with Southwest Virginia Ballet, dancing in their junior and senior pre-professional company. Under Pedro Szalay’s direction, she performed in various full-length ballets and participated in community outreach for local elementary schoolers. In 2017, she received a Fine and Performing Arts scholarship in Dance at Goucher College and graduated with a BA in Dance and professional writing. She performed in Jessica Lang’s Prayers and Durante Verzola’s Symphony Dramatique. During her undergraduate education, she studied dance abroad in Paris, France, taking movement workshops with Nathalie Pubellier and Heidi Weiss. Most recently, she danced with Milwaukee Ballet II and Rochester City Ballet as an apprentice. Tiana is passionate about promoting equity and accessibility in the dance world, as well as participating in community outreach. She is excited to join Chattanooga Ballet and explore the beautiful city.

Maura McHugh is from Stamford Connecticut and trained from a young age with The Ballet School of Stamford. She then went to Butler University for Dance Pedagogy and minored in Psychology. While at university she worked with several choreographers including Deborah Wingert, Patrick de Bana, and professors of the university on original works as well as repertoire including Serenade, Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake. She also made many of her own works through her participation in the departments’ Student Choreography Showcase and Senior Choreography Showcase, which highlighted the works of senior participants. She continued to teach at The Ballet School of Stamford throughout college and taught ages 5-18 in various styles of dance.