Leah Pires, this year’s valedictorian at Boston Arts Academy (BAA), has been dancing since she was two years old. This fall, she will continue her studies in the art of dance at the Alvin Ailey School at Fordham University in New York City, thanks in part to scholarship support from the BAA Foundation and the generosity of Paul and Sandy Edgerly.

The achievement is the realization of a years-long goal for the 17-year-old Dorchester native. “In 8th grade, I wrote it down that I wanted to be in New York City and dancing at Alvin Ailey,” Pires told The Reporter. “To be able to achieve that and now getting ready to step into that dream means everything to me.”

The daughter of Luis Pires and Sandra Baptista, Leah followed an unconventional path to her high school success. Originally from Dorchester, her family moved to Whitman for a time, thinking that she would benefit from the suburban district’s school system.

“I was told in Whitman all the time that my comprehension wasn’t there, and I wasn’t on the same level as other students,” she said. “I don’t know how much of that was racially motivated, but it messed me up in my head.”

Pires says dance kept her grounded as she trained at the well-known Gold School in Brockton. She said her father, who was familiar with Boston Public Schools (BPS), felt that she should come back to the city and enroll in BAA to seriously pursue dance.

Pires says her homecoming wasn’t easy, as she felt—at times— like a stranger in her native community. “I didn’t fit in initially,” she said. “I had a culture shock, and it was my own culture. It took some time and then I grew to love it here. I don’t regret coming to BAA at all.”

BAA’s Class of 2025 is the first to occupy its new building in the Fenway neighborhood. Pires spent her freshman year at a temporary location in Fields Corner, splitting the facility with the former Cleveland Middle School’s Community Academy of Science and Health (CASH). She and her classmates relocated to the new, state-of-the-art, $125 million facility in her sophomore year.

“I can say with confidence that some colleges don’t look like this building,” she said. “For us, it was even more special because we had to go through being at CASH and that was an interesting time, and it was chaotic. Once we walked into that new building, it was a real sense of hope.”

Pires says she found additional balance by enrolling in the Jo-Mé Dance Arts School in Jamaica Plain, Debra Mason Performing Arts in Somerville, and even some classes at Boston Ballet – among others.

“Practically everywhere you could think of in Boston to dance – I’ve danced there,” she said. “I want my name out there before going to New York. I want to have a platform in Boston and be known in the dance community here.”

Dorchester’s Leah Pires, 17, celebrated graduating at the top of her class at Boston Arts Academy on June 9. She will now pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer as she heads to the Alvin Ailey School at Fordham University in New York City in August. Courtesy photo

Over the years at BAA, Pires has been known to be the first in the studio, and the last to leave – often skipping lunch to continue working. In the summers, she attended Alvin Ailey’s intensive session, getting acquainted with Fordham and its dance school long before she knew she would study there.

As a dancer of color, there were always challenges in the traditional dance world. She noted progress but said many decision-makers still only look for the “tall, white, skinny dancers” for lead roles. Even smaller things like ballet shoes are an issue, as they don’t make them in her skin color and Pires had to apply makeup to them to match. Things like that pushed her to pursue a more diverse dance company like Alvin Ailey.

“I just knew I wanted to be there,” she said.

As valedictorian, she could have enjoyed a full scholarship to Boston University, and she had a great offer from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She even had overtures from the University of Southern California (USC), but it was the Ailey School program at Fordham that was always at the top of her list.

After auditioning and celebrating her acceptance into the program, it was time to talk dollars and cents. Her financial package was pretty good, and she was able to negotiate a little more help, but Fordham is expensive.

That’s where the BAA Foundation and the Paul and Sandy Edgerly Scholarship stepped in and pulled Pires’s dream across the finish line.

In late August, she’ll report to the school where it will be a balance of rigorous dance classes during part of the day, then regular college coursework in between on a pre-law track. Pires hopes to turn her pathway into a professional dance career, but even the best performers hang up the dance shoes at some point and take up a longer-term career.

That’s where law comes in the picture. She said that while growing up in Dorchester, she saw injustice a lot for her family members and her neighbors. Having been removed from that at an early age for schooling outside of the city, she thinks that a law career can take her full circle to serving that community.

“I’ve seen the system fail so many individuals…and long term I want to do something in my community to change that,” she said.

“When you believe in yourself, that’s one thing, but when you have a village like BAA that is behind you and willing to make it happen for you, that’s when major change happens. BAA believes in us.”