Hana

Hi there! My name is Hana McElroy and I started dancing at age four, accompanying my mother to the ballet, tap, and jazz classes she taught. There, I fell in love with performing, and it became a central tenet of my life. I studied ballet and contemporary dance for 15 years, from my hometown of Morgan Hill, CA to my time at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. My favorite performances included our annual rendition of the Nutcracker, Balanchine’s “Stars and Stripes”, and the various modern dance performances I had the opportunity to take part in around the San Francisco Bay Area while studying under Meghan Horowitz. In college, I trained in various codified modern dance techniques such as Horton and Graham. I am also a bonafide theater kid, and performed with local community theater groups since age 5! Favorite roles included Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins, and A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder (various roles).

I moved to Los Angeles in 2022 to pursue a career as a musician. These days, I live in Echo Park, spending most of my time working on music, writing plays, short fiction, and personal essays, nannying a handful of tiny humans in and around the city, hiking, and line dancing with my friends.

I’m so grateful to Dance LA for allowing me to combine my two greatest loves, performing and children. As a kid, I learned so much from my mom in her dance and yoga classes: she taught me how to get in touch with my body and my breath, tools I continue to use both in and out of the dance studio. My goal is to create a safe environment for kids to learn, express themselves, and discover who they are and what makes their hearts sing. I learn so much from kids about creativity, kindness, patience, and curiosity; I only hope I can return a fraction of that back to them!