HARLINGEN — It’s brought out the best in her, and that best is quite something.
Bianca Rios, 10, is at it again, casting her spell over audiences with her magnetic performance, holding everyone’s attention with an almost hypnotic power.
Her current role is Elsa in Lee Means Elementary Fine Arts Academy’s production of “Frozen.” However, that’s just the latest of many roles that she’s taken and accomplished with an impressive flair. Bianca, of “Little Mermaid” and “Mary Poppins” fame, started her trajectory with the lead role of Cassandra in “Voyage of the Basset.”
She was only 4 years old then, and a very different kind of child.
“I started really shy,” Bianca said. “I didn’t talk to anybody. I didn’t know anybody. I was scared. I just felt really closed.”
However, being handed the lead role seems to have ignited something within her.
“After I found out I had that role I started getting more comfortable with other people and so I kept on going with those things,” she said. “I kept on doing more plays, and I just got so comfortable with other people that I was talking to.”
The Lee Means fifth grader plans to attend Gutierrez Middle School next year. She hopes to attend the HCISD Performing Arts Conservatory when she begins her freshman year; she’d like a career in show business.
“I want to be on TV, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube,” she said.
However, this young actress has a backup plan.
“Of course I like to do the acting and stuff, but also I really want to know how it is to be a veterinarian,” said Bianca, the proud owner of one pug, two Labrador retrievers and a Yorkie.
“I like working with animals because you get to know a lot of stuff about pets,” she said. “I want to become a veterinarian. You get to work with them, you get to meet all those fellow dogs. It’s a really good education to have.”
Her favorite subjects are reading, writing and math.
“I love reading,” she said. “I’m really fluent in a lot of stuff. You get to know a lot of things. Writing, you get to write your own composition, your own story.”
She’s even found a way to get creative with math.
“Math you can do any way to figure out the problem,” she said. “I think it’s so much fun.”
And believe it or not, this young stage virtuoso practices jiu jitsu in her spare time.
“Don’t mess with me,” she said with a laugh.
In all earnestness, she knows she’s going places. She’s been taking people to so many places through her acting and singing, drawing them into the performance like some magic carpet. But she works hard to get people there.
“I’m usually nervous before stage and I always pray,” she said. “I always pray all the time. When I come on stage I’m confident and I feel so good because I don’t feel like something’s going to happen. I’m just so confident and it just keeps on going.”
And so it goes …
Bianca Rios
AGE: 10
GRADE: Fifth grader at Lee Means Elementary
MOTHER: Rebecca Rios
BROTHER: Bryan Rios
