{"id":12297,"date":"2021-07-09T18:22:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T18:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=12297"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","slug":"bilal-shakur-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/07\/09\/bilal-shakur-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Bilal Shakur Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bilal Shakur Smith<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Carolina Ballet: Apprentice (2015-2016), Corps de Ballet (2016-present)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\"Bilal
Photo via Carolina Ballet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Baltimore, Maryland-native Bilal Shakur Smith was born ca. 1993 and discovered ballet by watching a production televised on PBS. After finding a brochure for Baltimore School for the Arts, Smith, who had never taken a dance class, auditioned for the school and was accepted, joining at age 14. Once he saw the advanced students in class, he knew \u201cThis is what I want to do with my life.\u201d His teachers included Norma Pera, Anton Wilson, Debra Robinson, Samantha Ordaz, and Linda-Denise Fisher Harrell. He graduated in 2012.<\/p>\n

Smith also attended Houston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre (2009), Dance Theatre of Harlem (2013-2014), and Nashville Ballet on full scholarships. Before joining Carolina Ballet as an apprentice in 2015, he received a full scholarship to attend their summer intensive on a full scholarship. He was promoted to the corps de ballet in 2016 and has performed Messiah<\/em>, George Balanchine\u2019s Rubies<\/em> and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto<\/em>, and The Nutcracker.<\/em><\/p>\n

Smith has danced as a guest artist with Ballet Chesapeake in their production of The Nutcracker<\/em> in the role of the Snow King and played Luis in North Carolina Theatre\u2019s 2019 production of West Side Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He was featured on the cover of Carolina Ballet\u2019s 2019-2020 brochure and has also studied at Baltimore City Community College.<\/p>\n

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