School Directors & Staff

A native of Brazil, Filipe Aragão began his ballet training at the age of 19 at Studio de Dança Luzia Aurelian in 2014. Within a few months, he was awarded a scholarship to study at Ballet Academy East in New York under the direction of Darla Hoover, former dancer with New York City Ballet and current Chair of Faculty of the School of American Ballet. While there, Filipe had the opportunity to work with renowned teachers and choreographers, such as Wendy Whelan, Ashley Bouder, and Claudia Schreier. One of his favorite performances was that of his graduation year when he had the honor of performing in George Balanchine's Donizetti Variations.⁣
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Filipe's professional career began in 2017, joining Huntsville Ballet Company under the direction of Phillip Otto, where he danced for one season and also taught at Huntsville Ballet School under the direction of Rachel Butler. In 2018, he joined Utah Metropolitan Ballet performing works by George Balanchine, Heather Gray, Alan Hineline, and Jacqueline Colledge, founding artistic director of the company. While working with Utah Metropolitan Ballet, he choreographed two ballets for the second company that was selected to be performed at the Ballet Alliance Festival, and one for the main company. In Utah, Filipe also was a faculty member at Center Stage Performing Arts Studio, where he taught for two years. In 2020, he joined Indianapolis Ballet as a company dancer and faculty member of the Indianapolis School of Ballet (ISB). During his time in Indianapolis, he choreographed two ballets performed by the company and 4 ballets performed by students of ISB. Filipe is very excited to join Ballet Tucson in its 2022/23 season.