Shaker native Shane Williams started on the path of a dance career later than most but has made up for lost time as a new member of one of the most prestigious dance companies.
By Sharon Broussard
Shane Williams doesn’t know when he fell in love with dance. Was it when he was watching his sister Brynn in her dance performances at Shaker Dance Academy? Or was it his obsession with the Canadian teen dance drama “The Next Step?” He’s not sure.
But the Shaker Heights native does know that he fell in love with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) a few years ago when he saw the dance company perform in Saratoga Springs, New York. As he watched the graceful dancers turn, leap, and soar, he said to himself, “I want to move and perform like that.”
And now he does. Last March, the prestigious ballet company, co-founded by noted choreographer George Balanchine, selected Williams to be in the corps de ballet, the ensemble which takes the stage nearly every night.
Williams was chosen after serving as an apprentice for just seven months with the School of American Ballet, the company’s official school. He is just 18 and lives in New York City.
“He was born to dance,” says Courtney Laves-Mearini, the executive director of Cleveland City Dance.
It was a swift rise that required lots of fancy footwork from Williams and his family, who live in Onaway. Seeing how much he loved to dance, his mother Tracy Williams, the registrar for the Shaker Heights School District, enrolled him at Cleveland City Dance (CCD) while he attended Woodbury and noticed that he would practice his dance and the dances of other people. His father, Reggie, a lawyer, and his two older sisters, Grace and Brynn, took turns driving him to ballet classes.
Williams stood out although he started ballet at 11, much older than most boys who become professionals.
“I saw that he had the right physicality, the right mentality to pursue this art form. He was born to dance,” says Courtney Laves-Mearini, the executive director of CCD, who encouraged him to audition for the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s residential school. He got in but he chose to complete 10th grade at Shaker Heights High school before going to New York. He graduated from the Professional Performing Arts School in New York City.
Williams says he is grateful to everyone who helped him fulfill his dream, from his family to Cleveland City Dance. And he loves dancing with the corps.
“Being on stage – there is no other place like it,” he says. “Even if the audience has 1,000 people in it, it feels so intimate – like I am sharing something with you.”
