Dancers

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, LELAND PIERCE began her formal ballet training at nine years old, attending The Hanover Theatre Conservatory. At the age of 15, she was offered a scholarship to attend The Dallas Conservatory’s Classical Training Program in Frisco, Texas, where she trained with her coaches Ashley Ellis and George Birkadze from 2021-2023.

During her time in the Classical Training Program, she had the opportunity to dance the roles of Nikiya and 3rd Shade in the program’s production of La Bayadere and Giselle in the program’s production of Giselle. In the summer of 2023, Leland attended San Francisco Ballet School’s summer intensive and was invited to train in the year-round program for the 2023-2024 school year where she studied under her teachers Karen Gabay, Larissa Ponomeranko, Dana Genshaft, and Viktor Plotnikov. While studying at SFB, she worked closely with San Francisco Ballet during preparations for The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Throughout her years of training, she has had the privilege to train with coaches Paulo Arrias, Telmo Moreira, and Magaly Suarez all who have been instrumental in her development as an artist.

In addition to her year-round training, she has attended summer intensives at Ellison Ballet, The Art of Classical Ballet, and Ballet West under a scholarship she received after the 2023 YAGP Finals in Tampa, Florida where she performed as a soloist. She has been fortunate to perform excerpts from Awakening of Flora, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Carnival of the Animals (The Dying Swan Solo), and Yacobson’s Pas de Quatre. She is thrilled to be joining BalletMet 2!