Stephanie Rae Williams was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and raised in Dallas, TX. She began her training at Texas Ballet Theater School with Lyndette Galen and Fiona Fairrie. Prior to joining Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2010, she has danced with The Francesca Harper Project, ARC Dance Seattle, Complexions Contemporary Dance Company, Ballet Black, and Texas Ballet Theatre, where she made her professional debut. Repertoire includes works by Pam Tanowitz, Nacho Duato, Jose Limon, Helen Pickett, Arthur Mitchell, Donald Byrd, George Balanchine, John Alleyne, Dianne McIntyre, Darrel Grand Moultrie, Francesca Harper, Liam Scarlett, Robert Garland, and David Fernandez. She trained summers at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Springboard Danse Montreal, The Juilliard School, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, and Houston Ballet Academy. Ms. Williams received the 2017 Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence, was featured in Dance Magazine's "On the Rise" in the August 2013 edition, and she was a Oprah Winfrey Fellowship recipient at the Ailey School, a 2006 National Foundation for the Arts Award Winner, a 2006 Youth America Grand Prix Finalist, and a 2004 Texas Commission on the Arts Young Master.

Keenan English began his formal ballet training at the age of 12 with the Baltimore County Youth Ballet. From there, he went on to attend the Baltimore School for The Arts. Upon returning for his senior year at the School For The Arts, he was invited to join the trainee program at Boston Ballet School, where he studied for a year under the Pao Scholarship. While there, English had the opportunity to perform with Boston Ballet in Romeo and Juliet, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, and the Annual Gala. In the summer of 2012, he attended the summer course at The School of American Ballet and later that year enrolled as a full time student on the Carolyn Wright-Lewis Scholarship. During his two years at SAB he performed in Balanchine’s Serenade, Coppélia, and Western Symphony, which was a Live at Lincoln CenterPBS Broadcast. He has danced professionally with Dance Theatre of Harlem for Harlem, Cincinnati Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Carolina Ballet.

Adrienne Simmons is a dancer, singer, and actor, who began their formal ballet training at the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre. Adrienne has trained at intensives nationwide and is currently a member of Mélange Dance Company. She is pursuing bachelor's degrees in business management and theatre at the University of New Orleans as well as her master’s in business administration. Recent credits include One Piece (Crescent City Theatre Alliance), The Upstairs Lounge (Mélange Dance Company), and Closer to Heaven (Theatre UNO) . She is currently performing Fantômes with Mélange Dance Company and stage managing No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre at UNO. Adrienne is grateful to be part of The Nutcracker tradition and to have this opportunity to defy the gender confines of classical ballet. IG: @adriennecsimmons

Emily Farrow began dancing at age 3 in Houston, Texas at the YMCA. She continued her training at the Virginia Dodd School of Dance in Surrey, UK, and the Terri Charlesworth Ballet Institute in Perth, Australia. In 2019, Emily began training with Nikki Hefko, Edward Spots, and Cheryl O’Sullivan at New Orleans School of Ballet and was a scholarship recipient at the Junior Philharmonic Society of New Orleans in 2020. She attended summer programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and Carolina Ballet to name a few. Emily furthered her training in the graduate program at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the School of Carolina Ballet, where she was awarded a full merit scholarship to their Pre-Professional Program after attending the summer intensive in 2022. While there, she was promoted to an apprentice and danced in numerous repertoire including George Balanchine’s Emeralds and Four Temperaments, Amy Hall Garner’s An American in Paris, Robert Weiss’ Orpheus and Eurydice and Firebird, and Zalman Raffael’s Frankenstein, Cinderella, The little Mermaid, and The Metaphorical Heart. Emily is excited to work with the next generation of dancers as a faculty member at NOSB and continue her passion for the art form.