The Big Ticket Summer is a concert that brings together the fans and supporters of numerous artists, dancers, and actors who are represented by Family Channel. We had the chance to speak with Brittany Raymond (Riley) and Trevor Tordjman (James) from The Next Step, before their performance in Toronto about how they came to love dance, touring with The Big Ticket Summer, and advice for aspiring dancers.
What were some of your tour highlights?
Trevor: Well this year is more of an actual tour, like we’re actually touring on a tour bus and there are seven shows which is the most we’ve done for Big Ticket in a row. So it’s very exciting. It just feels a lot different, doing stadiums in a bunch of different cities across the country.
Brittany: Yeah it’s pretty cool, it’s a very new experience for us because we all film together for the summer but now we’re also always together on the bus.
At what age did you start dancing and when did you know that you wanted to make that something big in your life?
Trevor: I started dancing at the age of four. I don’t think I ever realized I loved it until I was older. Even then I just knew it made me happy and I knew it was something that would always be a part of my life. Then once I joined The Next Step and it became such a big deal. Then I realized that it was actually possible for me to really pursue this.
Brittany: I started dance at the age of four. I loved performing and I was always that person who made it a big deal of committing to the character on stage. Once I got on the show, I found a new love for acting and it’s something that I fell in love with completely, it kind of expanded from The Next Step, for sure!
If you had to choose between acting and dancing which one would it be?
Trevor: This is really hard. Dancing will always be a part of my life, whether I pursue it or not. There will always be time for me to dance, so I feel like it is a part of me. Whereas acting is probably easier to actually pursue. Dancing is like a part of me and acting is something I do.
Brittany: The thing is, dancers can only have a career until they’re about thirty, because when you hit a certain age your bodies can’t handle the stuff that you do anymore as much. I think acting is something that you can take forever. As Trevor said, dancing has always been my one true passion.
Since you guys were put into dance when you were younger, have you expanded into different dance genres since then or have you stuck with one in particular?
Trevor: My mom owned a dance studio so I would just go to work with my mom. I was training in everything. Once I stopped training in the studio, and started to work professionally as a dancer, I focused on street styles, break dancing, hip hop, and tap as well. But I don’t train in a lot of the other styles anymore, I more so pin pointed it.
Brittany: I grew up following my sister’s footsteps, she’s the reason why I started dancing. I did every style out there like ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, and acro. I trained all the way up until my last year. I try to keep up with all of the styles but hip hop has always been my favourite—the boys always help me out with that. That’s something that I definitely have loved from the beginning and that’s something that I’m training in a little bit more now.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking into pursuing a dance career?
Trevor: At the end of the day, there’s no right and wrong. Dance is an art; people are always going to see it how they want to. There are always going to be people that don’t like it and there are always going to be people who like it, so it’s really easy to just pay attention to the negatives, just stay positive.
Brittany: Be confident in whatever your style is, the type of person you are and the personality that you have when you dance. Show that whenever you can, don’t ever feel like you’re not good enough or you can’t do things, always push yourself. Always challenge yourself and know that you are capable of anything.
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