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RALEIGH (MCT) — Elena Bright Shapiro was just starting her post-grad life: She had her first serious boyfriend and her own place in Raleigh, and she was a trainee at the Carolina Ballet, an impressive first step for a young woman who had devoted her life to dance.

But the 20-year-old Winston-Salem native's life was cut short Friday night when her car was rear-ended by a suspected drunken driver in North Raleigh.

Shapiro was traveling west on Strickland Road about 8:35 p.m. when her Hyundai was struck by a Mercedes-Benz driven by Raymond Dwight Cook, 42, a surgeon at WakeMed Facial Plastic Surgery and an assistant professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. A WakeMed spokeswoman, Heather Monikee, said Cook's privileges at WakeMed had been suspended.

According to police reports, Cook was traveling about 85 mph when he hit Shapiro; the speed limit on that road is 45 mph. Cook was charged with felony death by a motor vehicle and driving while impaired.

Family, friends and instructors spent the weekend trying to make sense of the tragedy.

''We're heartbroken and in a state of shock and disbelief," said Bibiana Fowler, Shapiro's older sister. "She was our everything."

Shapiro's love for dancing began early, and it was something her mother, a ballet instructor, nurtured. Shapiro enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts preparatory program when she was 10 and stayed there for high school. She spent summers traveling across the country, performing with dance companies.

After graduating, she spent a year at the Boston Ballet as a trainee until she landed at Raleigh-based Carolina Ballet.

Susan McCullough worked with Shapiro at arts school performances such as "The Nutcracker" and Balanchine's "Serenade." She described the way Shapiro danced and looked as "ethereal."

''She was physically beautiful, very sweet and very endearing," McCullough said. "She was very talented, no doubt about it."

She won the Youth American Grand Prix in South Carolina in 2006, and it was a turning point in her career.

''Her confidence came together," Dayna Fox, another instructor at the school, said via e-mail. "I think she was on her way."

Dancing was how Shapiro moved through life, her sister said, but it wasn't her whole life.

''It was important for her to also do other things," Fowler said.

Shapiro made jewelry and was a loyal friend, she said.

In Raleigh, Shapiro trained five days a week and then worked at Macaroni Grill the other two days. She visited her family in Winston-Salem almost every other weekend, Fowler said. She especially loved her niece, Lily Elena, Fowler's daughter.

A funeral will be held Tuesday at Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University. A dance scholarship at the UNC School of the Arts will honor Shapiro.

''The saddest thing is that she was just starting, and we will never know her full potential," Fox said.