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Hello Theatre People! Another exciting week in the world of theatre as Broadway is now announcing an official September 2021 reopening—signaling that many more stages that will follow to tell their stories as well.
This week, I have a special interview for you—from veteran dancer and ballet artistic director, Victor Trevino.
I met Victor several years ago, when he was taking his Ballet Eloelle performance of Swan Lake on a tour in China. No longer wanting to lug his giant, expensive and tired backdrops overseas, we worked together to design a series of new digital projections for the show. Victor has an incredible, and yet quiet, passion about his work—and I hope you enjoy his interview as much as I did!
Victor Hugo Trevino, Ballet Artistic Director and Dancer
I am inspired by a wide variety of shows, both live and in film. The movie “Moulin Rouge” is an example. Shows that are creative and deliver the unexpected always capture me. I am always amazed by the talent that goes into every aspect of theater and what people are capable of.
There are many, so I will pick one. I was performing in Buenos Aires and Julio Bocca, the top male ballet dancer in the world at the time, came to see the show. He came backstage and asked if he could perform with me. Three days later we performed the Black Swan Pas de Deux together. It is still a fairytale type story that I find hard to believe happened to me. I have another great story of Roland Petit coming to see me dance a parody of his Carmen Pas on opening night in Tokyo, but that will have to wait for another time.
It is hard to narrow this down. I have seen a lot of failures and been part of many. One that you may appreciate happened when I was performing as a guest in a Nutcracker. They were touring and for the final scene they brought in a backdrop near the front of the stage to bring the story back from the land of the sweets. They didn’t have the curtain available that went behind the drop at this theater, so you could see the dancers standing ready for the final bow. They decided that all the dancers should lay down on the ground and then get up once they had the final blackout as a remedy. I foolishly told the directors why I thought it was a bad idea. They dismissed my concerns and sure enough, because they were on tour, the crew made a mistake. The drop lifted at the end of the ballet without a blackout and caught a company of dancers laying on the floor in odd positions. The funniest thing is that the directors were mad at me for being prescient. They felt I’d jinxed them by voicing my concerns
I love the ability of performers to convey emotion and connect with an audience at such a deep level. There is nothing better than performers who are able to express vulnerability or engender hope to a group of strangers. It is that connection that I love as a performer.
DREAMS
It is not just what is on the stage, but the essence that a show projects that stays with you. Theater is the stuff of dreams made real and yes, it is for everyone.
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Mr. Trevino, the founder and artistic director of Les Ballets Grandiva and current director of Les Ballets Eloelle, Men in Tutus and Men in Pink Tights, has created various works for the company including Romeo and Juliet, Le Petite Nutcracker Suite, Spartacus, Swan Lake Act II, Bolero, Near the Middle Somewhat Below, Love Wrongs, Peridot, Minkus Gala, Pocahontas Pas, Dracula and The Changing Room, and he has staged numerous classical duets and solos. Beyond Les Ballets Grandiva his creations include The Adventures of Little Red Riding Hood, Peter and the Wolf, A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mr. Trevino also was an original member of Ballet Florida under Marie Hale and danced with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo for ten years. He is currently the Artistic Director for New England Ballet and is the Performance Coordinator and Liaison for Palm Beach Atlantic University as well as an Adjunct Professor
Published in collaboration with TheatreAve
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Mitch is the Founding Creative Director of Theatre Avenue, where he designs digital projections for the performing arts. For the last 14 years, Mitch has produced digital content for theatre and ballet companies, universities, and schools internationally. His work ranges from original illustration, animation, and motion design for productions such as Willy Wonka, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, The Wizard of Oz, Annie, Lion King and beyond. Mitch travels the country teaching projection design workshops, conducts virtual learning sessions, publishes media content, and writes for theatre magazines and blogs. Before his dive into the theatrical world, Mitch was an art director and designer creating nationwide campaigns for corporate and non-profit organizations like NBC News, Global Down Syndrome Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and the Alzheimer’s Association. He worked for 10 years with hundreds of clients as a graphic and web designer, illustrator, and motion graphics artist. Mitch earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Ball State University, where he studied art and design, the humanities, and computer animation.
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