Eugene Barnes is a member of the company; he was born in Louisville, Kentucky but was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied dance for five years, before joining Carolina Ballet, at Baltimore School for the Arts. He spent two summers at Miami City Ballet Summer Intensive; one summer with San Francisco Ballet and one summer with the Dancer Theatre of Harlem. Carolina Ballet artistic director Robert Weiss invited Eugene to audition for the company after he participated in a master class Weiss was teaching in Baltimore in 2003.