Craig Hall

Craig Hall (born 1979) is an American ballet dancer. He danced with the New York City Ballet as a soloist until 2016 then became a repertory director, and was one of the company interim leaders between late 2017 and early 2019. Early life Hall was born in Maywood, Illinois, and started dance training at age 4. At age 14, he entered the Chicago Academy for the Arts. When he was 18, in 1997, he moved to New York City to train at the School of American Ballet full-time, having previously attended two summer intensives there. In 1999, prior to his graduation, he originated a featured role in Christopher Wheeldon's Scènes de ballet. He also received the Mae L. Wien Awards for Outstanding Promise that year. Career In October 1999, Hall became an apprentice at the New York City Ballet, and became a member of the corps de ballet 4 months later. In 2007, he was promoted to soloist. Throughout his career, he had danced works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and originated roles in works by Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Wayne McGregor and Jorma Elo. In 2011, Hall was chosen by his colleagues to dance the title role in Apollo, as a part of the company's Dancers' Choice, and is the first African American dancer in the company to dance this role, though he did not reprise the role again. He is also a frequent partner of principal dancer Wendy Whelan. In her farewell performance, he danced with her in the After the Rain pas de deux, as well as in a new work by Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky, titled By 2 With & From. Hall had performed with Wheeldon's company, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company.