{"id":394911,"date":"2025-09-08T10:22:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=394911"},"modified":"2025-09-08T10:22:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:22:48","slug":"from-lebanese-roots-to-brazilian-ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/from-lebanese-roots-to-brazilian-ballet\/","title":{"rendered":"From Lebanese roots to Brazilian ballet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The daughter of Lebanese<\/strong> parents, ballerina, choreographer, and cultural manager Dalal Achcar has built a path that brings together art, persistence, and family roots. Born in Rio de Janeiro, she spent part of her childhood in Lebanon, where she reunited with her paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother and gained a deeper understanding of the culture that had always been present in her home. This experience, which shaped her personal development and helped cement the connection between Brazil and the Arab world<\/strong>, remains with her to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI lived in Lebanon<\/strong> from the age of 10 until I was 13 or 14. We sometimes came to Brazil because my father had business here, but we always went back there. That\u2019s why I feel Brazilian, but I also feel very Lebanese. Lebanon gave me roots, a connection with history and culture that made me mature and inspired my creativity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in Brazil, ballet emerged as her calling. But since dance was not yet widespread in the country, Achcar began her formal studies with difficulty. When her mother, who had been widowed very early, remarried a Polish man passionate about music and culture, it was her stepfather, Henryk Spitzman Jordan, who encouraged her to study dance in Paris and take her first steps toward becoming a professional.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Dalal
Dalal Achcar: Her talent in ballet was quickly recognized<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The decisive moment in her career, however, came a few years later with the encounter of one of the greatest stars in world ballet, Margot Fonteyn, who was captivated by the young Brazilian\u2019s talent and invited her to complete her studies in London. \u201cThat\u2019s how my professional career began. I was supposed to stay for a month, but I ended up staying a year, learning everything and performing,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From then on, her career took on an international scope. Achcar represented Brazil at a gala for the Royal Family in London, toured across Europe, and staged productions alongside some of the leading figures in Brazilian art.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The
The ballerina shared her knowledge and taught<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In her youth, back in Brazil, she founded the Bal\u00e9 do Rio de Janeiro, a non-profit association dedicated to providing opportunities for talented young dancers with no access to training. Later, she brought to Brazil the methodology of the Royal Academy of Dance in London, which revolutionized ballet teacher training in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spent ten years traveling all over Brazil to train teachers and implement this methodology. It raised the standard of instruction and made Brazilian dancers competitive on the international stage,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s, she founded a school bearing her name. The institution, which teaches dance, grew and remains a benchmark for ballet in Brazil to this day. At the same time, within the school, she developed the social project \u201cDance as a Power for Transformation,\u201d which offers free classes and professional training to children and young people from vulnerable communities. Achcar notes that many of the talents trained through the project have gone on to secure positions in internationally renowned companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe social project allows young people who wouldn\u2019t otherwise have opportunities to find a path. We already have Brazilians dancing in companies in Europe, the United States, and even Australia,\u201d explains the Brazilian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to her life as a dancer and ballet school owner, Achcar also worked as a choreographer. In this role, she directed the Ballet of the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theatre and later oversaw the entire Municipal Theatre Foundation, which manages opera, orchestras, and the ballet company. During her tenure, she brought thousands of students to performances, democratizing access to the arts and fostering exchanges with major international centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connection with Lebanon<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Achcar says that her bond with Lebanon remains strong in her life. She treasures memories of her grandmother, the family homes in different regions of the country, and Lebanese hospitality. She plans to take her son and grandchildren on a future trip so they can experience the land of their ancestors. \u201cLebanon is a country of history and culture. It\u2019s a blessed place, with very kind people. I have always felt a sense of belonging, and I still want to return many times,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after decades of her career, she still maintains an intense routine: running the school, rehearsing the company, writing articles, and preparing new choreographies. When asked about her age, she responds with humor: \u201cIf I stop to think about my age, I won\u2019t get anything done. I work 14 hours a day, and that keeps me active and young.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/em>:
Granddaughter of Arabs at Brazil\u2019s Electoral Court<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supplied<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born in Rio de Janeiro and having spent her childhood between Brazil and Lebanon, ballerina and choreographer Dalal Achcar built an international career and founded a social project that teaches dance to the younger generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2342,"featured_media":394362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[9802,54290,54289,54288,2231,49594,2268,48585],"class_list":{"0":"post-394911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-art-en-2","9":"tag-ballet-2","10":"tag-biography","11":"tag-dalal-achcar-2","12":"tag-dance","13":"tag-education-2","14":"tag-lebanese","15":"tag-lebanon-2"},"wps_subtitle":"Born in Rio de Janeiro and having spent her childhood between Brazil and Lebanon, ballerina and choreographer Dalal Achcar built an international career and founded a social project that teaches dance to the younger generations.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}