SEQUIM — His spine curves into a crescent, then an arc. An instant later, his palms are on the floor behind him, his body in the shape of a full moon.
Trey Baldwin, 15, makes the move look easy.
He speaks with ease too of his dream of going to Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and of dancing on Broadway.
And Baldwin recently received a letter, a brick on the road to the Great White Way: He’s been accepted to the prestigious Missoula, Mont., Children’s Theatre Next Step Prep summer program, and awarded a $4,200 scholarship.
What’s not so easy for this dancer is raising the $4,400 he’ll need to pay the rest of MCT’s tuition.
Dancing since age 6
Baldwin has been dancing since he was a 6-year-old at Pioneer Dance Arts in Sequim; now he’s in jazz and ballet classes at the Aspire Academy in Carlsborg.
He’s played princes in “Robin Hood” and “The Little Mermaid,” and performed in dozens of other Sequim productions.
But his talents aren’t limited to the stage.
Baldwin’s mother, Sandra Ramsey, taught him and 16-year-old his brother Todd how to do a few other things — like bake organic corn muffins and scrub a house from top to bottom.
“Being raised by a single mom, my sons know how to do housework,” Ramsey said.
Raising the money
So now, when Baldwin isn’t in school or dancing, he’s baking and selling muffins and hiring himself out to clean houses and do yard work, to chip away at that $4,400.
Also, Friday night, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula will host a teen dance at the Sequim club, 400 W. Fir St., from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Admission is a $5 donation, and the proceeds will go to Baldwin’s tuition fund.
Next Step Prep starts June 20 in Missoula, two days after Baldwin finishes his sophomore year at Sequim High School.
Ramsey said her son is one of 60 teens chosen from across the United States, and she wants fiercely for him to go — though raising enough money to cover both tuition and travel to Montana has been a challenge.
“I really want him to be able to spread his wings,” Ramsey said, adding that she hopes his time in Missoula, with high-profile dance and acting instructors, will lead to a scholarship to a performing arts boarding school.
“Will I be able to let him go? I have to,” she said.
Doe-eyed gaze
Baldwin, an impeccably polite youth with a doe-eyed gaze, doesn’t go on about his dancing. When pressed, he said that when he’s on stage, he feels nothing but joy.
“I never run out of energy,” he added.
Baldwin has felt nervous before stepping out into the light — for “two seconds. But once I’m dancing, I’m fine again.”
Yvette Lantz, who leads Baldwin’s classes at Aspire, calls him a boy of “amazing” talent and presence.
He has a professional career before him “as long as he keeps applying himself, and doesn’t get derailed,” she said. Baldwin is “always the best one in class,” and has an uncommon ability to choreograph a story on the dance floor.
“He strikes me as the kind of fellow,” Lantz said, “who will always be a dancer, in whatever realm.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
