SYTYCD Choreographer Arrested for Rape

So You Think You Can Dance's onetime go-to salsa instructor Alex Da Silva busted on eight felony counts from alleged sex crimes; could face life in prison

By Gina Serpe Aug 18, 2009 5:12 PMTags
Alex Da SilvaFox

So you think you can come up with an alibi?

Alex Da Silva, who up until this past season was So You Think You Can Dance's go-to salsa, mambo and Argentine tango choreographer, was arrested at his North Hollywood home this morning on a bunch of sex-crime charges involving four different women he tutored.

All told, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office charged the 41-year-old dance instructor with eight felony counts: four counts of forcible rape, two counts of assault with intent to commit rape and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object.

Da Silva is currently being held on $6.2 million bail and, if convicted on the charges, could face life in prison.

According to Deputy District Attorney Rosa Alarcon, who works within the bureau's Sex Crimes Division, the alleged assaults were committed against women ages 20 to 26, all of whom are dancers, and all of whom met the choreographer through his self-taught instructional classes.

The incidents all took place between August 2002 and March 2009. Da Silva worked as a choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance between 2005 and 2008.

We're guessing his feet are anything but happy right about now.

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Check out the best of SYTYCD's non-felony-facing choreographers with our video recap of the dances that made this year's Emmy cut!