67°
The internet thought otherwise.
Four days after posting the 15-second clip filmed at a beach in North Wildwood, Silnicki's video had been viewed more than 1.5M times on TikTok.
"I did not expect this to happen," the 26-year-old professional ballerina and former Rockette told Daily Voice on a call Wednesday morning, July 5.
Silnicki grew up in West Virginia, trained at the San Francisco Ballet School as a teen, then moved to New York City in hopes of landing professional jobs.
She worked as a Radio City Rockette from 2018 to 2021, and recently landed a role as a Rockette in the blockbuster hit, "Are You There God It's Me Margaret."
Every summer for her whole life, Silnicki has vacationed in North Wildwood with her mom.
Silnicki was at her mom's Jersey Shore home scrolling through TikTok last week, when she began noticing videos of other ballerinas dancing to the trending sound featuring Swedish ballet master Tomas Karlborg, yelling out a combo.
Like all professionally-trained dancers, Silnicki can hear almost any given combination and know how to do it.
Karlborg's combo was no different.
"Growing up, being trained constantly, day after day, you know all of those ballet terms," Silnicki explained. "You can hear the terms and immediately know the combo."
Karlborg's combo was a bit more advanced, the dancer explained.
It's called a grand allegro, and it's a combination typically taught at the end of a ballet class, right before stretching, Silnicki said.
"It was this great audio that took me right back to ballet days," she said. "I still train every day, but it’s an immediate reminder of being in class, working with other dancers."
And so, Silnicki thought the audio might be a fun one for her TikTok followers — mostly other dancers — to see.
She had her mom film her at Inlet Beach in North Wildwood Saturday, July 1. It took them more than a few tries as Silnicki admits, dancers are highly critical of themselves.
Then, she posted it. The following morning, Silnicki's video had been viewed more than 500,000 times. That number only went up.
On Tuesday, July 4, Jenna Dewan — who starred alongside ex-husband Channing Tatum in "Step Up" and worked with artists such as Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott, and Christina Aguilera — dueted Silnicki's clip.
"It was crazy because my target audience is usually ballet students," Silnicki said. "And I thought the demographic would be just ballet students."
Clearly, Silnicki's video is now on just about everyone's For You Page.
While Silnicki says she got a TikTok as a "fun little thing," she knows having a following will help her land more jobs in the dance industry.
"It's great now that people are seeing videos of dancing and ballet," she said. "But we’ll see what happens."
Click here to follow Sophie Silnicki on TikTok.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Villas-Lower Township and receive free news updates.
