Shelby Sweet, a native of Lake Monroe, Florida, began dancing at age three with a small local studio in Sanford, FL. At age thirteen, she was accepted at the Orlando Ballet School as a pre-trainee. She quickly moved up in the school as a trainee at age fourteen. Shelby studied under Samantha Dunster, Kim Marsh, Peter Stark, Fernando Bujones, Yen Chen, and Bruce Mark. She attended many summer ballet intensives such as Joffrey Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre in New York, and Houston Ballet. In 2004, Shelby won first place, in pas de deux, at the Youth American Grand Prix finals. 2005, she won first place at the American Ballet Competition and was awarded a scholarship to La Scala Ballet School in Madrid, Spain. In 2006, Shelby was a competitor in the International Ballet Competition. At the age of sixteen, Shelby joined Orlando Ballet as an apprentice under the director, Bruce Marks. There she performed many roles in the corp de ballet and quickly moved up to soloist. In 2010 Shelby joined Columbia Classical Ballet under the director Radenko Pavlovich. There she performed the Dewdrop in the Nutcracker, big swan and the Hungarian Princess in Swan Lake, Odalisque in Le Corsaire, and the principle role of Esmeralda in the Hunch Back of Notre Dame. In 2014, Shelby received her first job at Disney in the Festival of the Lion King at the Animal Kingdom. There she was a principle equity dancer performing the role “Maji”. Shelby performed a beautiful balletic pas de deux to “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and literally soars above all in flight. In 2015 Shelby was asked to join the Cirque De Soleil family. She was a soloist ballet dancer in the show, La Nouba, by Cirque De Soleil in downtown Disney. In 2016 Shelby and her husband, were blessed with a beautiful baby girl.  She now teaches all across central Florida.  “I'm beyond blessed to be able to share my technique and experience  with the youth of central Florida. It's the best feeling in the world to watch your students grow, and excel ” - Shelby Sweet