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Dance like a man

By Alaide Vilchis Ibarra

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Christopher Trepinski doesn’t seem to mind the countless hours he spends rehearsing at the Robinson Center in a white room surrounded by ballet bars, a wall covered in mirrors and a black piano on the right. Trepinski, Lawrence junior, doesn’t look bothered by hours of training or the perpetual nitpicking of things he needs to improve.

“Chris,” says the teacher, a slender man, “when you are walking around…” He follows by giving him a verbal list of what he needs to change in the performance of Twyla Tharp’s “Torelli,” a piece mainly composed of improvisation from the dancers. But even when improvising, every single movement has to be perfect.

This is exactly why Ashley Benes, Trepinski’s friend and classmate, says only students like Trepinski, who have passion for the art, survive the world of music and dance.

Trepinski’s love for dance began in third grade when he followed his sister’s footsteps by taking dance classes. Since then, the hobby stopped being a way of imitating his sister and became a tool to reach his dreams of being a triple threat—someone who can sing, dance and act, in a Broadway performance. He plans to attend grad school to study voice and later work as a dancer on a cruise ship to save money to move to New York.

Today, Dance has turned into something that can get him though a tough day.

“Dance has always been a great source of happiness for me, it has always been a release.” Trepinski says. “For me, it’s a way to embody my emotions through movements, letting it all out.”

Trepinski stands in a studio with two men and six women waiting for rehearsal to begin. His black hair stands out from the rest of the dancers because he is taller than everyone else by a head. Every dancer scattered throughout the room begins to do a different sharp movement. It is completely silent in the room, all you can hear is the sound of the dancers’ feet making contact with the black, rubbery floor of the dance studio.

The teacher walks to the stereo right before everyone flops down to the ground. The sound of classical music pours from the speakers and the dancers get up. Finally, the movements begin making sense with the rhythm of the music.

Trepinski makes sharp, yet graceful movements with his tall, lean body. He bends his back with one arm above his head, then his arms flail in a movement that seems uncontrollable as he folds his body in half leaving his head inches from the ground. Each movement seems accidental, yet his toes are always pointed, his back always straight, his posture always perfect.

But Trepinski struggled to get those movements to look perfect. Mandy Shrwise, the president of the University Dance Company who has danced with Trepinski for three years, says one of Trepinski’s biggest enemies when dancing are his feet. She says he doesn’t have arched feet and arched feet are one of those things that if you have them, it’s great, but if you don’t it is really difficult to get them right.

In the rehearsal, however, his feet didn’t look different from the other dancers’. That is one movement Trepinski has worked hard to improve. At the end of the day, says Shrwise, what matters about dancing is how dancers treat each individual movement to be able to do a performance as a whole.

“Dancing is all about learning from mistakes and becoming stronger. “

Trepinski has adopted that philosophy in his life; even in junior high when other male classmates would wait for him after his dance performances just to make fun of him being a male dancer.

Animosity toward his interest in “girly things” did not come only from his schoolmates. Although his immediate family supported his passion, he always noticed his external family would talk about his cousin’s accomplishments in basketball or football with pride, while nobody ever mentioned his dance recitals.

Jerel Hilding, head of the dance department, says the stigma attached to male dancers is one of the reasons there are less male student dancers than female. However, he says, the number evens out when it comes to professional dancing.

Trepinski’s response every time he mentions how he felt about being lumped into the stereotype that men shouldn’t dance is the same: “It made me really angry.”

He says he just doesn’t understand why people waste so much effort on hating somebody for what they love. His response to those who didn’t like what he did was ignoring them or at least brush off their comments.

“I really tried to make myself stronger from it and I really think I have.” He says.

Both Benes and Shwrise say Trepinski has become a more confident dancer and person since they met him.

“He is not one of those people who gets lost in the crowd,” Bene says. “But maybe it’s because he is so tall.”

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