Meet The Cast Of The Next Step!

When I am not blogging, or speaking at We Day, I am watching one of my favorite channels, Family Channel. There are shows like Jessie, Good Luck Charlie, Austin and Ally, Phineas and Ferb, ANT Farm, Shake It Up and more awesome shows. One of my favourite shows is The Next Step. I am actually watching the show RIGHT NOW as I write this blog post. The Next Step is about 11 dancers who are in a dance studio called “The Next Step”. The show has all kinds of stories – sometimes drama, sometimes romance, sometimes emotional, but mostly it’s about dance. The show also has a big overall theme that I really like – not giving up and optimism. When the Next Step dancers make it into Regionals, an important competition, they all have to not give up and do their best to win Regionals so that they can go on to Nationals. They all had to look on the bright side of things when the dancers were in a dance battle with their rivals for fun. Unfortunately, The Next Step lost to the other team but through losing, they all realized what they had to do to win against them for next time.

I had the great opportunity to interview a few of the cast members of the show – Victoria Baldesarra (Michelle), Logan Fabbro (Amanda from Elite Studios), Trevor Tordjman (James) and Lamar Johnson (West).

Hannah: Victoria, you started dancing for fun and then went into competition. Did you ever feel like the competition aspect made dancing more fun?
Victoria: Competitive dance made it even more fun because I finally got to be a part of a competitive team and people that became my family. When I was in recreational it was more of a single and independent thing as opposed to when I went into competitive dance I was like finally part of a team.
Hannah: Logan, when you were in competition doing something that you love to do, did you ever feel like giving up, and what do you tell yourself if that ever happens?
Logan: There are hard times and there are times where I do feel like giving up, but then I remind myself that we’re so privileged and the things that are coming out of dance are amazing for you. When I feel like giving up I tell myself that you’ve been doing this for so long, and there is nothing that’s going to come out of giving up. The only thing that you can keep doing is just to persevere and get through it.

Hannah: Do you get nervous preparing for The Next Step because you also have to act and dance?
Victoria: Yeah. It is really nerve wracking having to act and dance at the same time because we have to remember our scripts and our outlines and stuff like that, but then at the same time we have to remember all of our dance routines. And we rehearse for two weeks prior till we actually start production of the show. And it’s a lot. But at the end of the day it’s all worth it!
Logan: In those 2 weeks, we learn about 10 dances, and we learn about each of them in 5 hours, which is really hard because usually we learn a dance in the time of about 6 months. But it’s all worth it in the end because we just love to make the show for our fans!

Hannah: What was your favourite episode in season one? And without giving anything away, what’s your favourite part or scene in season two?
Victoria: All of the Regionals episodes! It my first time ever shooting a TV series, and the make-up and the hair was just the best part for me! We got to try on all those costumes and get to do our hair really cool and our make-up. There’s so much more dancing in season two, and I feel like all of our hard work that we did in rehearsal all paid off when we went to nationals!
Logan: In season two my favourite scene to film would have to be the fashion show. It was amazing just pretending like we were actual models walking down a real runway, and we just had fun as our characters!
Trevor: In season one, I really liked the scene where we battled Seeds. We got to dance a lot in street style, so there was a lot of hip hop and breakdancing involved, and that’s what I love.

Hannah: What does dancing teach you other than the moves? I take karate and I’m a brown belt, and karate’s taught me concentration, focus, determination and confidence.
Victoria: I feel like the reason why I try so hard in school and I do so well in school is because I have that competitive background. I always want to be the best that I can be in my class.
Logan: We’re also dancing with people who are much older than us, and we learn from them and we learn how to respect people and be respectful to ourselves and everything around us.
Victoria: There’s always a new challenge in dance and you’re always going to have to take the next step. You’re going to face challenges and you’re going to lose and you’re going to win. You just have to learn to roll with it!
Trevor: It teaches us to have a work ethic. I’ve learnt a lot of perseverance from being a dancer and how much you really have to work if you want to pursue it for a living.
Lamar: You really have to just keep doing it and keep drilling it because that’s how you get better. If you keep doing something, just like what the quote is – “Practice makes perfect.”

Didn’t they have amazing answers? Their dance moves are just as good (maybe a bit better even)! Season 2 of The Next Step premieres on Family on Friday, March 7th at 7:30pmET/PT.

My dad and I are attending the screening and red carpet for Season 2 of The Next Step, and I am so excited to go and meet the cast in person! Thank you to Joanna of Family Channel who helped make my interview and the screening happen! I also wanted to thank Victoria, Logan, Lamar and Trevor for their time.