Ballet and Bullets: Dancing Out of the Favela

Tuany started teaching classes in the Morro do Adeus favela, where she lives. It’s one of the roughest parts of Alemão, which is currently at the centre of a rolling feud between rival drug cartels and the military police. Many students in her group of girls, aged 4-15, come from families caught up in narco turf wars and afflicted by the chronic crisis of opportunity and urban poverty in the Favelas. With an average 20 incidents of weapons fired every day in Rio, last year saw more than 100 police deaths – as well as hundreds more civilians, many of whom are caught in the crossfire of confrontations in their local areas. Intensifying violence in Alemão heightens Tuany’s motivation to find support for the construction of a community centre, which will give her girls a safe space to dance and study. After the challenges of her own career, Tuany knows her students can’t all become pro ballerinas – but the discipline she teaches will transcend the act of learning to dance, setting them up with a better chance to escape the bitter cycle of hardship which swallows up so many young lives in Brazil. During one of her lessons in a basketball court in the centre of the Morro do Adeus favela a shootout between rival gangs breaks out with innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. Tuany is forced to put the ballet school on hold due to escalating violence and until they can raise money for the new community centre so they can have a safe space to practice.