Bret Shuford & Stephen Hanna

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Stephen Robert Hanna (born 1980) is a dancer in “Billy Elliot” on Broadway. Until 2008, he was a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet. He married Bret McCole Shuford on April 18, 2011, at Greenwich Town Hall in Greenwich, Conn.

He is a son of Edward J. Hanna and Marcella F. Hanna of South Park, Pa. His father retired as a maintenance supervisor at a General Motors stamping plant in West Mifflin, Pa.

Bret Shuford (born 1980) is an actor. In 2011 he appeared in the revival of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. He has also appeared on Broadway in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid.”

He is a son of Deanna L. Shuford and Preston N. Shuford of Orange, Tex. His mother retired as an emergency room nurse at Baptist Hospital in Orange. His father is a vice president of the barge line subsidiary of Higman Marine Services, a Houston shipping company.

The couple met on Christmas Eve in 2006. Shuford was hosting a party, and Hanna arrived with some friends. Hanna’s first impression of the host was: “Who is this guy? I couldn’t keep my eyes off him.” They were both dating other people at the time, so they became friends. A few months later they both found themselves unattached, and Shuford said he had an “aha” moment regarding Hanna.

Hanna said that he had always hoped they would be more than friends: “I was so attracted from the moment I saw him. I really cared for him.” He added, “The second we had the opportunity, it turned into something else.”


Photo Credit Laura Marie Duncan Photography
Stephen Hanna is a dancer in “Billy Elliot” on Broadway. Until 2008, he was a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet. He married Bret Shuford on April 18, 2011, at Greenwich Town Hall in Greenwich, Conn. Bret Shuford is an actor. He appeared on Broadway in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Little Mermaid" and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” The couple met on Christmas Eve in 2006. Shuford was hosting a party, and Hanna arrived with some friends.


Darci Kistler and Stephen Hanna in Peter Martins' “Octet” - New York City Ballet

They began dating in April 2007.

“What was so amazing is, we’ve always been in these tumultuous relationships, with playwrights and musicians, so intense and dramatic,” Shuford said. “But here there were no expectations. It was in your own time, whatever you need.”

“We laugh a lot,” he added. “We never fight. I’ve never been in a relationship like that.”

“I’d always fallen in love with people’s talents first, and here it was the opposite,” he said, pointing out that he did not know Hanna was a principal dancer when they met. “The talent didn’t matter to me. It was a bonus to me that he was such a beautiful dancer.”

Yet he liked the idea that Hanna was not in the theater. “Then he got ‘Billy Elliot,’ ” Shuford said, laughing.

When they can, they watch each other perform.

Indeed, Shuford said he knew the relationship was serious “when Stephen came to see me in ‘The Little Mermaid’ for his ninth time.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/fashion/weddings/24Hanna.html (NYTimes, By PAULA SCHWARTZAPRIL 22, 2011)