Silver Spirit
Spurs Silver Dancers choreographer Raquel Torres Garcia is living a dancer’s dream.
“I still pinch myself saying, I can’t believe I have this job,” she says.
Now 36 and a mother of three children under the age of 5, she is proud to have accomplished that rare feat of making dancing her career. In the 16 years since she first tried out and made the Silver Dancers, she has only been away from the Silver Dancers for three. She has been their choreographer since 2003.
In that time, Torres Garcia has traveled with the team as far as Milan, Italy, and Chihuahua, Mexico.
One of her best memories is when she shared a river barge with Tim Duncan and Antonio Daniels and their families back in 1999 during the NBA Championship Parade.
“That was pretty awesome,” she recalls. “I was the only Silver Dancer on that barge.”
Torres Garcia began dancing fairly late in her childhood, at 13 years old. As a girl in Houston, she got her first start in entertainment when Houston’s Pancho Claus Richard Reyes, also a well-known youth arts director, selected her out of 20 kids across the city for his Teatro Bilingüe de Houston.
Since then, she has had an impressive résumé, including being selected to the legendary Kilgore College Rangerettes.
Today she also teaches dance technique at high schools and dance camps across the state.
The playoffs are an exciting time to be involved with the Silver Dancers.
“It definitely changes the energy for the girls. I try to instill in my dancers from the get-go to just truly enjoy these moments. Enjoy the ride,” she says.
Torres Garcia says she is glad she has memories of traveling with the team and being around celebrity players that she will always treasure.
She also promises, “the first routine they’ll do in the playoffs will bring down the house.”
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