Tina Pereira

Pereira joined the National Ballet of Canada in 2001.^[1] She was originally given a two-year apprenticeship but was taken into the corps de ballet four months after joining, and was soon given lead roles.^[3] In 2004, she left for the Dutch National Ballet, but returned to the Canadian company in 2006.^[1]

In 2007, Pereira represented the company with Keiichi Hirano at the Erik Bruhn Prize and won the female category.^[3] She was chosen as a replacement for Bridgett Zehr, who suffered an injury two weeks prior.^[3] During the classical portion of the competition, the pair danced a pas de deux from Le Corsaire, but Hirano tore his Achilles tendon mid-performance, and she completed the pas de deux by improvising. In the contemporary portion, instead of a new ballet created for the competition by Sabrina Matthews, she danced the balcony pas de deux from Cranko's Romeo and Juliet with principal dancer Guillaume Côté.^[3] She was promoted to second soloist later that year.^[4]

In 2009, she was promoted to first soloist.^[1] During the 2014-15 season, she suffered from an ankle injury, which led to her being absent from the stage for the entire season. While recovering, she taught herself how to use a sewing machine and make dancewear. She launched her brand Ballerina Couture in November 2015, though she outsourced manufacturing.^[5] In 2020, she was featured in Tina, a short documentary about her injury and comeback, made by David Kalinauskas.^[6] The same year, she danced Fokine's The Swan at home for Misty Copeland's fundraiser Swans for Relief, to raise funds for dancers struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]

In 2021, the 38-year-old Pereira was named principal dancer. The promotion came late in her career.^[1]

• Tina Pereira at IMDb