Alex Da Silva, Celebrity Choreographer Accused Of Raping 4

LOS ANGELES — A dancer and choreographer featured on the FOX television show "So You Think You Can Dance" was arrested Saturday on suspicion of sexually assaulting four of his dance students, police said.

Alex Da Silva, 41, a well-known salsa dancer who teaches at several Los Angeles dance studios, was taken into custody after teaching a class at a Hollywood studio and booked for investigation of sexual assault, Det. John Eum said.

Da Silva, who was being held on $3.8 million bail, is scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

It wasn't immediately known whether the Brazilian-born Da Silva has retained an attorney. The voicemail for a phone number posted on his Web site was full and wouldn't accept messages.

Da Silva had been accused in 2003, 2004 and 2005 of sexually assaulting three women, but for unknown reasons prosecutors declined to file charges, Eum said.

Then on March 28, a fourth woman accused Da Silva of luring her to his home, using a ruse to get her into his bedroom and raping her. Detectives went back to interview the previous accusers, found similar accusations of being lured to Da Silva's bedroom and sexually assaulted by him, and reopened their cases.

"These four women don't know each other at all, yet their reports read basically the same," the detective said. He noted that one of the accusers was a minor at the time of the alleged assault.

"We're almost sure there are probably other victims out there and we hope they'll come forward," he said.

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On the Net: http://www.alexdasilva.com/

Comments

[ginsushark]

06:14 PM on 04/08/2009

Da SIlva is TINSY. A tiny tiny little guy. Who does a hypersexua­lized version of salsa and has a twisted look on his grill all the time - like a criminal type.

On the local news - Da SIlva's lawyers explained that he was seducing the females... NOT raping them... I guess thats why there 5 (not 4) 5 women making this claim. Underaged females.

[grovergrover]

06:36 AM on 04/07/2009

Three of my (male) friends have been taking this guy's 1-unit "Swing and Salsa" class at our University this semester..­. until now at least. Anyway I wouldn't describe their reaction to this as "surprise"­. In fact I distinctly recall them joking about his "rapist-li­ke" mannerisms and behavior with female students months ago. Bizarre. But based on the 3 previous accusation­s the school's athletic hiring department has some explaining to do.

[Susan Fredricks]

12:18 AM on 04/07/2009

More and more women are being subjected to sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and it is terribly sad that Da Silva took advantage of his students' trust and then raped them. The creep should get life and put in a cell with big old bad cons who preferably like boys. Women have got to start consciousl­y be aware of what is going on around them and with whom and be ready to protect themselves and start carrying personal protection devices such as stun guns, tasers, pepper spray, mace and tear gas. These devices are non-lethal and legal in most of the United States and are affordable and effective to bring an attacker down in seconds. A good resource is www.stinge­rgirlz.com, which offers a comprehens­ive inventory of personal protection devices, literature and videos on self defense as well as listing hotline numbers in every state for victims to get help. Ladies -- it is unfortunat­e that we live in a world where we can't even trust the ones we know and even love, but it is just another reason to take control and protect yourselves from these creeps. Check out www.stinge­rgirlz.com!

[WRPrintz]

11:08 AM on 04/07/2009

More and More? This has been happening for the length of human history. Wasn't right then, not right now.

That the POLICE did not act prior to this is indeed, sadder than I can say.

[sanfran25]

07:40 PM on 04/06/2009

This is disturbing­. My friend dated him briefly when he was first starting out in the bay area salsa scene, in the early 90s, way before he became well known and moved to Los Angeles. She did end up finding out he was quite the reputation as a womanizer, and didn't stick around for long at all, although her and I continued to take his classes, as he was a good teacher. He always had attractive women hanging around with him. He is such a small framed man, it's hard for me to imagine he could overpower a woman and rape them but perhaps if they were under the influence or very petite I really don't know. What a horrible crime if this turns out to be accurate and I hope he gets the maximum sentence possible and the victims are able to get closure and move on. If he's not, he may as well go back to his native country of Brazil, change his name and start teaching samba because the media has already smeared his reputation beyond repair.

[Halfwit]

06:08 PM on 04/06/2009

SEE MUGSHOT!
Where? Where is the mugshot?

[MNmommy]

01:59 PM on 04/06/2009

This is so incredibly disturbing­. As a parent of a dancer, this is one of my worst fears.

DaSilva is on staff at Debbie Allen's prestigiou­s academy teaching young children.

http://www­.debbieall­endanceaca­demy.com/i­nstructors­.htm#7

Aiyeee!!!

[MrGrasse]

01:49 PM on 04/06/2009

Cabot Wright Begins...A­GAIN

[Deborah Perez]

01:18 PM on 04/06/2009

Being a long time veteran of the dance business, I know this scenerio far too well. For his sake, I hope it isn't true. I'm not going to say one way or the other what I believe since he hasn't had a fair trial. I will say that I wish this type of thing didn't exist anywhere, but I hate that this type of behavior is so common among male dance instructor­s. It gives the dance business & instructor­s a bad name. All instructor­s are not like that. Some are very caring people who love to see people learn and enjoy the pleasures of knowing how to dance. This type of thing convinced me to leave the dance business for a short time years ago, only to return and open my own dance studio in order to do what I love in an environmen­t I could be proud of. God bless Alex whether he is innocent or guilty, because he needs it either way.

[Anastasia]

02:07 PM on 04/06/2009

Why do you think dance instructor­s are prone to this kind of behavior? Perhaps the whole instructin­g thing is really about controllin­g these women.

[jalowe1957]

10:57 AM on 04/06/2009

Everything here reeks of narcissism and hubris, not to mention the karma that's finally coming back at him manifold.

As always, all one has to do is to connect the dots and find a disturbing pattern of behavior that will follow him straight to trial..

[MNmommy]

02:09 PM on 04/06/2009

The way he treated Suzy on national television last season on SYTYCD was horrid.

[wndrwrthg]

05:24 AM on 04/06/2009

This should never have been reported until it had been adjudicate­d. If he is found innocent, his life will have been ruined. Non of these types of crimes should be reported on until they are over, and then only if the accused is found guilty.

[TVDinner666]

10:27 AM on 04/07/2009

He's been charged, and it's standard practice to report allegation­s once a person has been charged.

[xxmaryxx]

02:43 AM on 04/06/2009

I remember this guy when i would go out dancing Salsa in San Jose, and Mt View Calif. He always had women around him. He thinks of himself as being the best dancer of Salsa. He was a bit arrogant,f­ull of himself. I must admit I am shocked at the accusation­s.

[RoadCrossingChicken]

01:19 AM on 04/06/2009

I would call him a pig, but then pigs don't deserve that.

[missbizy]

01:07 AM on 04/06/2009

It's hard to believe he could actually rape someone because of his small stature, unless he had a weapon I suppose. The girls had to be even smaller than him?

[scenecreamer]

10:54 PM on 04/05/2009

Standard Latin misogyny. Nothing new.

check the stats on violence against women and girls for latin American countries. It's an epidemic, and it's a part of the culture.

[robXdion]

11:07 PM on 04/05/2009

Why do people like you break down a crime as a function of the culprit's race or culture and then you're strangely quiet on stories like the recent white male gun rampages?

[jbeach]

11:30 PM on 04/05/2009

Um, it was the American-b­orn LA cops who didn't pursue the prior cases, let things stay quiet, and let this guy just keep on rapin'.

So as a white American non-Latino­, I'm telling you: don't go blaming latin culture for this mass.

[dct1999]

11:39 PM on 04/05/2009

You make a good case, except it was the DA's office who dropped the ball.

[chevyval]

10:25 PM on 04/05/2009

what a coward.