Alex Da Silva, the salsa dance instructor on the first four seasons of 'So You Think You Can Dance', is also ordered to register as a sex offender as part of his Friday, January 27 sentencing.
- Jan 28, 2012
AceShowbiz - A salsa dance instructor who worked on the first four seasons of "So You Think You Can Dance" will have to spend the next 10 years of his life behind bars. Alex Da Silva was sentenced to state prison on Friday, January 27, for raping a former dance student and assaulting another.
During the sentencing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy told Da Silva that he clearly "does not respect women" and "believes he is entitled to do whatever he wants when he wants." The judge also ordered the 43-year-old to register as a sex offender once he's out of prison.
Da Silva was arrested at his North Hollywood home in August 2009 on sex-crime charges involving four different female students. In September the same year, he was convicted of raping a 22-year-old woman in August 2002 and of assaulting a 25-year-old protege with the intent to rape in March 2009.
The jury, however, deadlocked on four other counts, including two more alleged rapes of other women in 2004 and 2005. Judge Kennedy formally dismissed those counts during the Friday sentencing.
Da Silva wasn't the only "SYTYCD" choreographer who got in trouble with the law. Shane Sparks was charged with eight counts of felony child molestation in 2009. After pleading no contest to one count of unlawful intercourse with a minor under the age of 16 in August 2011, he was sentenced to 270 days in jail.
