New Girl Crush: Afro-Brazilian Ballerina, Ingrid Silva
Women are totally owning the 21st century in sports, entertainment, politics and, of course, dance. The success of Misty Copeland in becoming the first African American female principal dancer has prompted us to muse who will be next to follow in her footsteps.
In our opinion, we believe that this distinction will come from Dance Theatre of Harlem’s own genius dancer, Ingrid Silva. As the daughter of a domestic worker and a retired Air Force employee, the 26-year-old performer grew up in Rio de Janeiro’s Benfica neighborhood, which was a blue collar area not far from the city’s famed Maracanã Stadium.
Much like any young child interested in dance, Ms. Silva was eight years old when she started doing ballet. She went to classes with her brother and worked her way up to professional training by quitting swimming and other sports in order to dedicate herself to dance.
Ingrid attended ballet classes every day after school while growing up. Her accomplishments afforded her an opportunity to move to the United States. Eventually, she arrived to the country at age 19 after obtaining a full scholarship to attend the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She became a full-fledge member in 2013. With over 17 years of dance experience and much success, Ingrid never forgets her roots as a fierce and impassioned Afro-Brazilian performer.
“I come from a favela in Brazil, am black, have a poor family and yet, despite all those odds, I became a ballerina,” she said.
As one of the success stories of the famed Dançando Para Não Dançar program, Ingrid Silva also trained at the Teatro Municipal School and with Deborah Colkers company. Her talented skills, self-assured nature and mature sensibility has enabled the talent to focus solely on her path as a dancer. “I had to get by on my own [when arriving to New York]. That’s when I grew up and learned to appreciate what my parents had taught me,” she said.
Silva didn’t speak a lick of English or know anyone when she first arrived to Gotham. Now, she lives in her own place with her new puppy, and admonishes her fellow Brazilian ballerinas like Ana Botafogo and Cecília Kerche. “I’ve become my own role model. As a black dancer from a [low-income] community in Rio without my parents having the financial means I have to get me there.” Back at the Teatro Municipal school, Ingrid was one of four black dancers in her class of 25. Rio’s premiere ballet company does not have one single black female dancer, and only a handful of black male dancers.
With such a situation, Silva could take her style and grace back home to rule the stage. Saying that racism in ballet “is a shame” because “it’s for everyone,” we hope that that can eventually be moved out of the way to enable her some popular success. “I’m not here [at Dance Theatre of Harlem] because I’m poor,” she said. “I’m here because of my dancing.” Ingrid doesn’t know how many dance opportunities she’d have in Brazil since ballet doesn’t get much recognition, but if you’re interested in knowing more about Ingrid Silva — you can check out her latest and greatest on Twitter and Instagram.
On the following pages, check out some other photos of Ingrid Silva in action.
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