Every little girl who dreams of being a ballerina should get an equal shot— even if she’s blind.
That’s why the Fernanda Bianchini Ballet Company has been training blind ballet dancers for the last twenty years.
Nestled in São Paulo, Brazil, the dance academy is the only dance school in the world that caters specifically to the visually impaired.
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Geyza Periera, prima ballerina and instructor at Fernanda’s, has been dancing for 17 years. When watching the ballet company perform on stage, it’s hard to believe that the performers have been taught only by touch and auditory instructions.
An upcoming 90-minute documentary about the school, Looking At The Stars, just reached its Kickstarter goal, and collected $34,500 to finish production on the film (watch trailer below).
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The movie intimately follows the journey of Geyza and her young protegée, Thalia, through their struggles at the academy.
“Three years ago we started this project as a profile of the school. Since then, it’s turned into a coming of age exploration of two remarkable young women at pinnacle moments in their lives,” says director Alexandre Peralta. “Even more than that, it’s become a coming of age for our own team as we’ve watched their courage and passion overcome all obstacles.”
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The nonprofit school, which supports mostly young women from low income families and communities in and around Sao Paulo, was started twenty years ago and has since been recognized internationally, having closed the 2012 Summer Paralympics beside the London Royal Ballet, and danced for Parsons Dance, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the Danish Royal Ballet, among others.
(WATCH the Looking At The Stars trailer below…)
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