Thiago Soares

FROM SILLY CLOWN TO BALLET SUPERSTAR

- Kristy Dempsey

Who said clowning around won't get you anywhere? Tell that to Thiago Soares (chee-AH-go SOH-AH-rees), the former longtime principal dancer for the Royal Ballet in London, England. When Soares was a child in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his parents were not wealthy and had no money for extra activities, so they signed him up for a free circus school designed to keep kids off the street and out of trouble.

There, Soares studied performance art: acrobatics, capoeira, acting, and clowning. Becoming a ballet dancer never even crossed his mind as a young kid. Brazil was known more for its soccer and samba than for producing ballet greats.

By the time Soares was 12 years old, he was dancing, but not in ballet. His older brother was part of a hip hop street dance group, and Soares began to hang out with them. Soon he was combining the skills he'd learned at circus school with hip-hop and capoeira to captivate crowds on the streets of Rio.