Shelby Williams "Biscuit Ballerina"

Shelby Williams is a soloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, and is the creator of the viral ballet comedy character Biscuit Ballerina. 

Shelby received her professional training on scholarship at the Washington School of Ballet and the Houston Ballet Academy. Shelby previously danced with Houston Ballet 2, Dresden Semperoper Ballett (Germany), Ballet d’Europe (France), and Barcelona Ballet (Spain), and as a soloist with BallettMainz  and the Hessisches Staatsballett in Germany. There she performed leading roles in works by Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Douglas Lee, Alexander Ekman, Pascal Touzeau, Georg Reichel, Richard Siegel, Marco Goecke and Cayetano Soto. 

In 2016, she joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders where she has danced featured roles in works by director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui as well as in works by William Forsythe, Pina Bausch, Hofesh Schechter, Akram Khan, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Benjamin Millepied, Andonis Foniadakis, Jeroen Verbruggen, and Edouard Lock amongst others. 

In Dance Europe Magazine (October 2017), she was nominated in the category "Outstanding Perfomance of a Female Dancer" for her performances in "Approximate Sonata 2016" by William Forsythe and "Café Müller"by Pina Bausch, portraying "Steely strength in the Forsythe, and all vulnerability in the Bausch". 

In 2017 she created Biscuit Ballerina as a way to bring humor to the seriousness of ballet and address mental health in the dance world. Biscuit Ballerina was nominated in the category "Best News" in Dance Europe Magazine (October 2018) for "offering amusing and inspiring perspective for dancers on the pursuit for perfection."