Ingrid Silva is a professional ballet dancer who started her dancing career at the age of 8. Born in 1989 to a domestic worker and a retired Air Force employee, she grew up in Rio de Janeiro''s Benfica neighborhood, a working-class area not far from the city's famed Maracanã Stadium.
Ingrid started out dancing in Mangueira at Dançando Para Não Dançar, a program based in a dozen of Rio's favelas that provides classical ballet training to kids and teens who could otherwise not afford dance classes. Silva danced in college and then in 2007, she got into the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH)'s summer intensive, and went to New York to train. A year later at age 19, she went back to New York to join DTH's ensemble, and later went on to join the company.
