By Michael V. Crismali, Correspondent
EAST WINDSOR – Throughout the holiday season, one can find many different productions of some of the most classic stories ever told.
This holiday season, local firefighter Victor Hom of the East Windsor Volunteer Fire Company No. 2, will be among those helping tell a classic holiday story.
Mr. Hom will be a guest artist for the production of “The Nutcracker,” which will be performed by the Hamilton Ballet Theater at Rider University on Dec. 17-18.
He is not only a firefighter, but is also a classically trained dancer, and an award-winning dance instructor. Mr. Hom performs contemporary ballet as well as ballroom and Latin dance. He trained from an early age as a scholarship student at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Princeton Ballet School, Nutmeg Ballet, the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet and the State University of New York. He has also been featured in the New York Times and Dance Magazine.
Mr. Hom first became interested in dance at the age of 13 after watching “Tap,” the 1989 film about the son of a famed tap dancer who gets released from prison and takes over his father’s dance studio. The star of that film was Gregory Hines, and Victor even had the chance to meet him some years later, while on the “Beyond Broadway” tour in 2000.
Mr. Hom joined East Windsor Volunteer Fire Company No. 2 as a junior firefighter at the age of 16 in 1993, but left the area a year later to pursue his professional dance career. In 2001, he returned to East Windsor, and in 2005, he rejoined the fire department, later becoming a fully certified firefighter because he wanted to serve the community.
On the surface, the world of firefighting, and the world of dance, may seem like polar opposites, but Mr. Hom said that his training as a dancer has been helpful as a firefighter in a few ways. Classically trained dancers are often faced with high levels of stress and the ability to deal with that effectively certainly has similarities to the fire service. In addition, one must be physically fit as a dancer, and for obvious reasons, that also works in his favor as a firefighter.
In this version of “The Nutcracker,” Mr. Hom will choreograph and perform in the Arabian Pas De Deux Dance in Act 2, and he will also perform in the Act 1 party scene.
The performances Dec. 17 and Dec. 18 are at noon at 5 p.m. at Rider University’s Yvonne Theatre, in Lawrenceville, N.J. For tickets, which are $18, call 609-587-2345.
