Dalal Achcar

Dalal Achcar is a Brazilian ballet master, choreographer, artistic director and producer.

Early life and education

Achcar was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Lebanese parents.

Career In the 1960s Achcar was the head of the Rio de Janeiro Ballet Association. She presented ninety shows in European capitals using music by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Cláudio Santoro, and contributions from Manuel Bandeira, Vinícius de Moraes, Di Cavalcanti and Burle Marx.

In 1962 Achcar founded, with Maria Augusta Morgenroth, the Ballet School of the Castro Alves Theater in Salvador. In 1968 this school developed into the Brazilian Ballet of Bahia, of which she became artistic director. She introduced the Royal Academy of Dance method in dance teaching throughout the country, guiding schools and academies.

In 1967, Achcar arranged performances of ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev at the Maracanãzinho gymnasium to popularise ballet in Brazil.

In 1971 Achcar, with Maria Luisa Noronha, opened the Centro de Arte e Cultura Ballet Dalal Achcar, a school delivering ballet instruction to children and professionals, offering guidance in technical and artistic training for instructors, and maintaining an assistance program in the area of dance for needy children and teenagers in risky areas.

Achcar created the first higher dance professors training course in Brazil, at the Faculdade da Cidade (now UniverCidade) in Rio de Janeiro.

In the 1980s Achcar produced Brazilian classics, creating Floresta Amazônica (Amazon Forest) on Heitor Villa-Lobos music and featuring Gabriela, with author Jorge Amado, Caribé, Edu Lobo and choreographer Gilberto Motta.

In 1986 Achcar organised the II International Dance Festival in Rio de Janeiro and lectured on "The Latin American Ballet and its Development" at the II Latin American Conference of Experts on Ballet, in Caracas.

She was the artistic Director of the Ballet do Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, and twice president of the Fundação Theatro Municipal. Don Quijote, Abelard and Heloise, and Something Special, staged in several international centers such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Tokyo, La Habana and Santiago de Chile, with artists such as Natalia Makarova, Marcia Haydée and Fernando Bujones.

She has published several articles and books, among which are: Jornal da Dança (1972), Ballet – Arte, Técnica e Interpretação (A technical and didactic book – 1979), Ballet – Uma Arte, (1998), A Cultura no Terceiro Mundo – ABL (1999) and Istanbul – A Fascinating City (Guide of Istanbul, 2011)

Awards and honours

Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, being subsequently promoted to the grade of Officier Ordem do Rio Branco, and the Ordem do Mérito Cultural (grade of Commander) by the Brazilian Government Alvorada Medal by the Government of the Federal District José Bonifácio Medal in the grade of Grand-Officer, by the University of Rio de Janeiro Appointed by the Brazilian Dance Council official representative of Brazil at the UNESCO Conseil International de la Dance

In 2014 Achcar is a member of the council and vice-president of the Iberian-American Association of Dance Specialists, a body connected to the Organization of American States (OAS), and is a member of the Executive and Artistic Committee of the Royal Academy of Dance.

Personal life Achcar is the widow of federal deputy Luiz Fernando Bocayuva Cunha with whom she had a son. She is the first cousin once removed of the author Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Dalal Achcar was portrayed by Camila Márdila in the 2024 Brazilian film I'm Still Here.