My Life is a Film: Thiago Soares
- Bonnie Adams
- Mar 22
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 25
Royal Ballet principal dancer for 16 years, Thiago Soares reveals how A Wolf Among the Swans made it to the big screen.
A WOLF AMONG THE SWANS aka UM LOBO ENTRE OS CINES produced by Globo Filmes, and TVZero.
1. How did a film about your life first start, who approached you, and your reaction?
The director contacted me about 11 years ago after seeing a story about my career on tv. He wanted to meet me for coffee. He wanted to know how I became a professional dancer. My reaction first was to be very surprised. Obviously its something nice. But I wasn't realizing my journey could become an actual film. In fact in the beginning, I didn't really believe it. I just thought someone was wishing that perhaps they could convince someone to do a film about me. I thought it was something very distant from reality. But in fact when he contacted me, he already had the deal.
2. What input did you have on the screenplay and the production?
I helped in the complete process of finding the actors, dancers, and also the preparations of Matheus Abreu . (Matheus Abreu played Thiago in the film.) Matheus had 2 people, a ballet teacher and a hip hop advisor that was with him at all times. Matheus spent time with me at my studio, shadowing me, and watching my rehearsals. We had this time together, which was great. In the last process of the film, I was in some editing specifically and creative decision making of the film. I acted a bit like a producer, but not officially. You know its funny when they are doing a project about your life, you guess its important that I was there helping but also that there are professionals doing that. They needed my help but they didn't need me to take their place in a way. The whole team and the main production company TV Zero were really nice. They actually understood. There were major decisions there about time, about music, about what makes sense in mid 1990's Rio de Janeiro: the culture of dancing in public places and how those kids used to behave. They had a particular swag, but they were not arrogant. I believe that my presence, working with them, having conversations, and making decisions added to the results.
3. How long did it take from the first conversation to the film being made?
The first conversation about making my life into a film to the first day of shooting was 8 years.
4. Is there anything you would change?
It's interesting, even though I had my hands there on the project with them, I had a word. I was able to say things. The film has people who make the final decisions, and that wasn't me. The directors have to be the one that do the last cut. They decide on the optical that will be the one that everyone will watch.
They were interested in my personal life, how I would approach romance in those early ages, the girlfriends, etc. Now watching the film I understand why that had to be there. For some reason I didn't think that was the heart of my journey. I understand that they decided to add that there. I think my journey was about obsession of getting an opportunity, getting a vehicle of survival and that vehicle is also a beautiful art form which is dance and make that the focus of your life. I think its also about meeting someone, there's always someone in this life that helps you, to get through, to believe in yourself, and to discover your best version. I think that is the essence of this film. The journey of this young guy finding something that represents him in life, which is dance and mentorship. You know any beat of it, that's the thing about films, its a collective point of views of ideas. When you have all of these things added into a project, then it becomes magical and full. It has multiple angles. Its rich for the lovers of dance, for people who switch on the tv, for those who go to the cinema, there is a lot there as well, that they may be interested in other angles of the characters. That's the beauty of films, its for all, its for everyone.
5. What did you think of Saint Augustine, Florida?
Oh my gosh, about Saint Augustine, when I got the invitation I had a few things coming on and off on my schedule. I loved the idea of going and especially to watch the film and see the reaction of people. When it was getting close, I actually even had to make my journey shorter, because I was going to stay longer in Saint Augustine. It was quite special for me to go. You know sometimes you need a break in life, and maybe you don't need a holiday, but you just need a reason to have time for yourself. It's interesting when life brings this opportunity to you. I think that happened to me there in Saint Augustine. I needed to stop a little bit. I needed to reflect. I needed to be in a place where I was calm and relaxed. When I got there I realized the charm of the city, like how people are very kind, and open to conversations even in the downtown there, those bars, those places where they have art outside and the piazzas, the squares. There is a pace there that made me very calm and made me open to chat with people and have a chance to see around and to notice these people, have a laugh, to have a coffee, to be like a person, to enjoy life, and that was very nice. It was a dose of humanity. I had a really great time. I met all of you guys there and everybody treated me amazingly. It was really a blessing. I came back from there feeling great, feeling a better person. Because you know I was there for the week, just talking to people, having nice conversations, enjoying films, reflecting. Enjoy this journey, because it's not a very long journey, this life, and when you have time for that, it becomes precious.
Carmen will be at Teatro Imperial in Petropolis, Brazil on April 18, 2026 and
at Teatro JSafra in Sao Paulo, Brazil on April 26, 2026.
Thiago Soares dance studio is:
STUDIOTS+DANCA
Av. Airton Senna 2.600
SS118
Barra da Tijuca
Rio de Janeiro- RJ
Brasil
Bio for Thiago Soares
Born in 1981 in Rio de Janeiro, Soares was introduced to dance in a street dance hip hop group of Vila Isabel in Rio de Janeiro. Eventually at 13, he got a scholarship to train to become a professional dancer at the Centre for Dance Rio where he graduated in 1998.
Soares joined the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theatre Ballet in 1998; where his repertoire included the Prince in The Nutcracker, Siegfried in Natalia Makarova's Swan Lake, Solor in Makarova's La Bayadère, Romeo in Vladimir Vasiliev's Romeo and Juliet, and Basilio in Don Quixote. In 2002, he briefly trained with the Kirov Ballet and danced Siegfried and Basilio and Prince desire with the Russian State Ballet.
Soares joined the Royal Ballet in 2002 as a First Artist and was promoted to Soloist in September 2003, First Soloist in September 2004 and finally, Principal dancer in September 2006 and eventually a principal guest from 2017 to 2019. His repertoire includes the majority of the classics, the title role in John Cranko's production of Onegin, Siegfried in Anthony Dowell's Swan Lake, the Prince in Peter Wright's The Nutcracker, Solor in Makarova's La Bayadére, Prince Florimund in the Monica Mason, Count Albrecht in Sir Peter Wright's Giselle, Colas in Sir Frederick Ashton’s La fille mal gardee, Franz in Nineteen de Valois Coopelia, Christopher Newton production of The Sleeping Beauty, the lead Pas de deux in William Forsythe's In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Glen Tetley's Voluntaries, Mark Morris' Gong, Ivan Tsarevich in Fokine's The Firebird, the First Movement of Balanchine's Four Temperaments, the Second Movement of Balanchine's Symphony in C, Diamonds in Jewels, Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de deux and the Queen of Fire's Consort in Christopher Wheeldon's Fire variation in Homage to the Queen. His Kenneth MacMillan repertoire includes Tybalt and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Rasputin in Anastasia, Lescaut in Manon, Elite Syncopations, Winter Dreams and Rudolf in Mayerling, Requien, (el Pepe) in Las hermanas
His Frederick Ashton repertoire includes the Thaïs Medatition as de deux, Orion in Sylvia, Colas in La fille mal gardée, Birthday Offering Pas de deux and Awakening Pas de deux, the Prince in Cinderella
He has also created roles in David Bintley's Les Saisons, Will Tucket's The Seven Deadly Sins, Liam Scarlett's Sweet Violets and Wayne McGregor's Raven Girl.
Nowadays, his agenda includes performances as a guest artist in different theatres around the world, and is the artistic director of the Ballet de Monterrey in Mexico and of his own dance studio in Rio de Janeiro, StudioTSmaisdanca. He is a member of the board of the Brazilian institute at King's College London.
AWARDS
His awards include a silver medal at the Paris International Dance Competition in 1998, a gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition at the Bolshoi Theatre in 2001, and the "Outstanding Classical Dancer" award at the UK 2004 Critic's Circle National Dance Awards 2018 Medal of Cavalier of the order of Rio Branco by the Brazilian government for his services in the Arts. In 2020, he received an honorary doctorate from King's College London.
Thiago Soares was portrayed by Matheus Abreu in the 2025 biographical film Um Lobo Entre os Cisnes.
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