You’ll be seeing a lot more of this Charlotte Ballet dancer and aspiring choreographer
Charlotte Ballet dancer Andrès Trezevant has moved a lot for someone who just turned 23. He was born in Tucson, then moved to Belgium and attended high school in Las Vegas before moving to Chicago.
Movement is his thing.
His high school, Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, was a magnet school about 10 minutes away from the neon lights of the Vegas strip. “My high school was downtown, so I was constantly around the performing arts,” he said. “I was surrounded by them. It definitely made it easier to find comfort in that area. Vegas offers a lot of support for people interested in the performing arts.”
Trezevant originally wanted to be an actor — not just when he grew up, either. He was a child actor. His mom took him to auditions, he got parts. When he was 11, he added dancing to his repertoire and thought musical theater might be in his future.
And then Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater came to Vegas’ Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and the 15-year-old was transfixed. Trezevant, who’s Hispanic and African-American, describes Ailey as “a hero.”
“I was in 10th grade when I saw the Alvin Ailey Company perform,” he said. “It made me realize dance was what I wanted to pursue as a career.”
He got a promotion
Trezevant landed in Charlotte just over two years ago at the invitation of Hope Muir, Charlotte Ballet’s artistic director. He joined Charlotte Ballet II, a two-year pre-professional training program.
Charlotte Ballet II dancers appear on stage with the main company — when there’s not a pandemic raging — and lead lecture demonstrations and residencies at public and private schools. At the end of Trezevant’s two years, there was an opening in the main company. He got a promotion.
Muir likes promoting from within. “It’s good for the dancers in the academy to see there’s a career path for them.”
Before coming to Charlotte, Trezevant danced with Chicago’s Hubbard Street Professional Program. He was preparing for his second year there when he got a call from his mentor, Las Vegas-based Peter Chu, founder and artistic director of chuthis. Chu asked if Trezevant might audition for Muir.
Muir liked what she saw.
“Andrès had been a child actor, which gives him a sense of theatricality,” she said. “But there’s nothing precocious about him. When I saw him in lecture demonstrations with students, I noticed his ability to communicate and engage with those kids. He’s so comfortable in the way he communicates.”
In addition to teaching, Trezevant has performed many times with the main company. He was in “Peter Pan.” And Muir said: “He played Drosselmeyer in ‘The Nutcracker’ and held an entire act of a ballet.
“He had a featured role in ‘Leonce and Lena,’” Muir said. “And he shone. He was a leader in second company; he brought ideas to me. ‘Can I play him this way? What about this?’”
Trezevant describes himself as a “very groove-oriented contemporary dancer” and said his versatility is a plus. “I like to use ballet techniques, but I’m most comfortable with contemporary.”
“He can really shape shift into a role,” Muir said. “He’s a fantastic mover and has great coordination.” He’s also started creating his own dances and joined Charlotte Ballet’s Choreographic Lab, a program that showcases aspiring choreographers.
At home in the QC
Trezevant lives in uptown. He said he’s used to urban surroundings and likes “feeling part of the city.”
He grew up in a single-parent family and his mom attends all his performances. She left Vegas for Virginia, so it’s easier to make it to Charlotte. “She’s my biggest fan,” Trezevant said.
Vegas may have been Trezevant’s training ground, but there’s little trace of the over-the-top glitz in this native son. “Andrès is calm, sensitive, thoughtful,” Muir said.
Despite the support from his mom, teachers and hometown, Trezevant says there have been challenges along the way.
“It’s constantly a battle to try to get where I want to be,” he said. “Even in Vegas, I had to deal with comments about being a male dancer — and especially one of color. People made assumptions — like that the only place for me might be in a Black-centric dance company. I had to drown out their voices.”
After a pandemic-induced hiatus, Charlotte Ballet dancers got back in the studio in late September.
Professional dancers need an audience; it’s part of why they do what they do. It’s tough not having one.
“It’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest and no one being there to hear it,” Muir said. “If what you’re doing isn’t witnessed, does it even exist?
“Our dancers were away for so long,” she said. “A gap year in dance just doesn’t exist. This is what keeps me up at night.”
She and the company are eager to get back on stage. “I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for Andrès,” she said. “Before the pandemic, I had earmarked some wonderful opportunities for him.”
This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.
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This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 9:30 AM.