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One of the top ballet dancers in America shockingly revealed Thursday night that just 14 year ago a teacher used makeup to make her skin look whiter before a pivotal performance.
Brazilian Nayara Lopes, a principal dancer with the Philadelphia Ballet, said that she came to the U.S. in 2011 to audition for the prestigious ballet competition, the Youth America Grand Prix.
During a panel at a YAGP in New York event, Lopes said: “My teacher, before I went on stage, she told me: ‘This is the chance of your life, everybody has spent a lot of money for you to get here… You have to get something!’”
“At 14 years old, that’s a lot of pressure,” the dancer added, “And she painted me white with her makeup, and she said, ‘This is the best way you’re going to get a chance.”
Misty Copeland, who in 2015 became the first Black principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater, was also on the panel.
Lopes said that at the time, she “accepted it.” “Now, I think back: How can you normalize this?,” she said during the “Classical Ballet Pantomime: The Evolution of Choreography” event at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, “I would do anything to change my life, to help my family — but now, as a dancer, I don’t want to be the dancer that did it because she had makeup on. I want to be the dancer who’s good enough to do it as myself.”
Also on the panel were Skylar Brandt and Calvin Royal III of American Ballet Theater and former member of the ABT, John Meehan.
Larissa Saveliev, YAGP’s founder and artistic director, told Page Six: “The moment Nayara stepped on stage her talent was obvious. YAGP saw her impeccable technique, strong training, and the artistry in her movement. Her performance spoke for itself and she won the 2011 Grand Prix Award, at YAGP Regionals in South Carolina.”
She added, “The reason YAGP annually travels to 25 plus American cities and 10 plus international cities is to find the most promising young dancers from around the world — regardless of origin or background.”
Saveliev said that YAGP’s mission since its founding 25 years ago has been to nurture young talent “wherever it is found.” “And to provide every aspiring dancer an equal platform from which they can receive life-changing scholarship opportunities and ultimately launch their careers at the world’s leading dance companies,” she said.
