A self-proclaimed tomboy, Grace Shivers was eight years old when she took her first ballet class. “I think ballet was great for me because it was kind of athletic and musical at the same time,” she says, “and then I fell in love with it automatically.” A graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, Shivers felt she needed more time to grow as a dancer before joining a company, choosing to attend Indiana University where she graduated in three years with majors in ballet and history. She joined Cincinnati Ballet Second Company in 2010, quickly working her way up to the Corps de Ballet in the company. “I’ve learned so much every year, and I feel like I’ve been dancing a lot since the beginning. You get a lot of stage time,” she says of Cincinnati Ballet, “And time to learn, so that’s really good.”