All in the Family

Matthew Chiu didn’t set out to become a dancer.  In fact, his dancing career started by accident.

His mother, Doris Chiu, explains.  “I was overseas, and my husband screwed up – he forgot to enter him in continued swimming program.  He ended up with no exercise thing.”  As the mother of a wildly energetic seven year-old, Mrs. Chiu looked for a program that would help her son find a creative outlet for all that energy – and found a free acro workshop at the Lois Laxton Dance Studio.  Her eldest daughter, Melanie, was taking classes there, so it seemed like a natural choice.  “I wasn’t thinking of anything but exercise.”

The energetic Matthew enjoyed acro so much, that Doris enrolled him in classes at LLDS in the fall.  At first, he was just taking acro; then, as he explains, “the acro progressed into jazz, and then jazz led into tap, and then to join the competitive team, I had to take at least one class of ballet, so the ballet started there.”

He started taking ballet classes the September he was eight, and in February another dance mom told Doris that the National Ballet School of Canada was holding auditions in Hamilton – for the first year ever.  “At that time, we didn’t even know what that was in any sense of the word” Matthew remembers. 

So, Doris did some research of her own.  “I called NBS.  They asked me ‘how long has he been taking ballet?’ I said ‘since September’, they said ‘we’re looking for talent’, so I registered.”  The stakes were pretty low, for both mother and son. “If you get it, then great, if you don’t, then no loss”.

Mrs. Chiu continues, “I remember, before the audition, the Vice Principal of NBS, Carol Chatwick passed by and asked me ‘how long has he been taking ballet?’ I said ‘since September’, she said ‘what is he doing here?’ I said, ‘I was told you were looking for talent’.”

Within 45 minutes, the members of the audition panel were calling Matthew by his name instead of by his number.  While Matthew’s mother knew this meant something, Matthew barely noticed.  “I wasn’t at the audition like ‘I need this’ it was more ‘this sounds like fun’!  The class wasn’t that difficult, at some points the teacher kind of lost my attention because for me it was kinda boring, it wasn’t stressful or daunting.”

After both parent and child had been interviewed, the Chius found out that Matthew was being accepted to the second stage of the audition process – the summer program at The National Ballet School in Toronto.  However, the decision to accept the offer wasn’t an easy one.

“I was already doing competitions at that time, and had competed in the ‘I Love Dance’ competition in Buffalo NY. I had won an award and a package to dance with them at the Royal Waldorf Astoria in New York, NY, and learn with choreographers and great people in the industry, and the most challenging part was, it overlapped with NBS’s summer program by two to three days.”

A decision had to be made, and since Matthew was only 9, it was up to Doris to make it.  “I don’t know what to do, I’m all by myself, my husband’s not home, by best friend’s not home, and I’m sitting there crying.”

Eventually, NBS won out, and Matthew was off to Toronto.  For the first week, he wasn’t allowed to contact his family, as a test to see if he could make it through the academic year without being homesick.  He passed with flying colours - not only in his resistance to homesickness, but also in his proficiency for ballet.  Each year, 10,000 students audition, and of the 300 children who make it to the summer program, only 50 are invited to attend the full-year program.  Matthew Chiu was one of them.

Matthew recalls that when his mother asked him if he’d like to go to the National Ballet School, his response was something like “yeah, sure that would be fun”.  For Doris, however, it was far more difficult.  “It was hard; I cried every day - I’m not kidding, I still cry.”

But Doris knew that she had prepared her son for living away from home.   “I’m not a stay at home mom, I took my kids everywhere.  They’re really independent, outgoing.  We knew we were only a one-hour drive away.  I picked him up every Saturday afternoon.”

When asked what it was like to grow up seeing his family only one and a half days out of the week, Matthew replies “For me, it’s just part of my childhood.”  Doris has a different opinion:  “I think he skipped childhood”, but Matthew disagrees: “I think it’s just a different childhood”.

In retrospect, Matthew sees that his approach to the study of ballet was different from some of his classmates’.  “I’ve been privileged to have this gift to dance, and at that time I was using it more just recreationally not as a serious professional.  I can say this now, at that age, I was really doing it just to do it.  I never regret having those kinds of feelings, but I do feel that my training would have been different if I’d had that mindset ‘I need to be the best ballet dancer in the world’.  Especially in classical ballet, you do need to start at three years old.  And if you have the mindset at three years old to be amazing, then you work your body differently, and then your body’s mobility and technique will be different when you’re older. ... Regret isn’t a word that I use very often.  I don’t see it as a negative, I just see it as a different path.  I’m working my body the best I can now.” 

Through the National Ballet School he had the opportunity to go on an exchange to Australia in grade 10.  “I remember Deborah Hess, one of my teachers, saying ‘we might have you go to Australia, but the big ‘but’ is, you have to work really hard’, because they only send their most prestigious students to go on exchange, because you have to represent the school entirely, so I said ‘okay, I’ll work really hard’ so I did, I worked my butt off”.

All the hard work paid off, and his mother was able to book his plane ticket a scant one month before he was due to be there.  “This was my first flight by myself, and it just happened to be across the world, and I was 16.  It was a 30 hour flight.”

Matthew loved Australia, and when he wasn’t dancing, he was pursuing one of his other passions – visual art.  Tempted as he was to stay in Australia, he returned to NBS, only to be offered another exchange program.

“In grade 12, I was told ‘Matthew, it might be really interesting for you to go to the Ailey School [in New York City] because they have a great contemporary program’ and at the time I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, I just knew that I wanted something different than just ballet for such a long time, something to wake me up and see what direction I want my life to go, dance-wise.”

To the Ailey School he went, and returned there after his graduation from NBS to continue his studies.  “I graduated on June 22, my drive to New York was June 23.”  After eight years at NBS, Matthew got to be the new kid.  “It was nice to be in the unfamiliar.  It was definitely something that I needed, and still in many senses, it’s still the unfamiliar … expectations are different.  The technique is completely different.  They combine classical ballet, Horton technique, grand modern, African dance, culture dance, hip hop, jazz, street - it’s such a diverse school.  It’s a big leap from what’s familiar.  As much as I felt like I’m kind of scared to take a test in the waters, I was like, I need to do this … to further me as a dancer, to help me experience a new world.”

As might be expected, mother and son had different feelings on Matthew moving to New York.  When asked how it felt for her to have her son move from the safety of Toronto, to big, bad New York City, Doris replied “It wasn’t safe in Toronto either.  Scary, of course, you know, but I have so much trust in him, he has pretty good judgment, he’s not an ordinary young man, he’s much more mature for his age.  Before, I was one-hour away if I wanted to see him, now I’m one day away.”

Matthew’s opinion on NYC is a little different.  “It’s a very intense city.  It can be intensely fun and joyous and amazing, or it can be intensely stressful and overwhelming and almost claustrophobic.  As a city, it really just has a life of its own.” 

At the Ailey school, Matthew is studying ballet, modern, (Graham & Horton), and hip hop.  He’s also looking at taking classes in house styles (b-boy), at the Broadway Dance Centre.

The exposure to ‘both worlds’ of dance has had an exhilarating effect on Matthew.  “I really want to do both, to have a company life, a contemporary refined life but at the same time I would love to be in a music video, in a movie, to have that lifestyle.”

He auditioned for Madonna a week ago – and described it as “fun” – the same way he described his first audition for NBS.  “I went to the Madonna auditions, I went with the idea of ‘I need this, I need this job.’ I didn’t get the callback, but I had a lot of fun.  As a performer, you’re always looking to perform, you’re always looking for opportunities for new eyes to see you.  It’s an excuse to kind of show off.   Me being a very modest person, I don’t like to push that in people’s faces when it’s inappropriate, but in an audition process, it’s always appropriate to push and push and push and kind of have an egotistical moment – it’s enjoyable.”

Clearly, Matthew loves what he’s doing.  “If you’re a dancer, how can you not enjoy what you’re doing?  If you’re an artist, how can you not enjoy what you’re doing?”  His mother adds:  “If you don’t have a passion for that, everything becomes hard, but if you have a passion, you love doing it, it’s fun.”  Matthew is quick to jump in “It’s still hard, but it’s more rewarding”.  Doris finishes by saying “you have discipline in a way to fulfill your passion - that’s what I think it’s all about.”

When asked what one piece of advice she would give to parents of dancers, or aspiring dancers, Doris doesn’t hesitate before answering.  “You have to support them, you just have to support them.  If you have someone who has such a high passion, and they have the ability to do that, you have to support them, whatever that is.  It’s not easy.  Financially it’s very heavy, but when you see someone have such a big passion about that, how can I not afford to do that?”

Both Doris and Matthew know that his position as the youngest child made it easier for his parents to support him.  “Being the youngest, I think that he is blessed both ways, because he has a real passion.”  Matthew adds “I was fortunate, and still am fortunate, to be able to do the things I do.  It’s just by circumstance.”  He is not the first Chiu noticed for dance talent.  “His sister was asked to go to dance in Spain, but I couldn’t afford it”.  Now his two sisters are at the adult program at NBS.

Upon further inquiry, it seems that dance really does run in the family.  Says Doris, “I have a passion for dance, I never had a chance to do that.  I had an opportunity when I was very young.  Someone offered for me to take ballet for free, my mother would not allow me to do that.  Later on she found out, she was very upset, she said to them ‘you taught my daughter evil’.  My mother is a very old fashioned generation, they thought anything to do with dancing is evil.”

Doris was determined that her children would have the opportunities that she was denied.  “I made myself a promise, when my daughter turned four, I sent her to ballet.”

When asked if it might be her turn to dance, Doris suddenly turns shy, and claims she has two left feet, but nobody believes her.  Matthew’s friend Brooke Shepherd is one of the contestants on the new Lifetime show “Your Mama Don’t Dance” in which dancers compete against each other with their parents as their partners, and  Matthew says he’d have “so much fun” if he and Doris were a dance team.

When asked who she would dance with if she could dance with anyone alive or dead, Doris’ answer is “my husband”.

Whether or not Doris decides to pursue dance at this point, Matthew most certainly will.  Future plans include going to Hong Kong, where he feels he could become a Cantonese Pop Star.  “New York has made me more secure – there’s a time to be modest, and there’s a time not to be, but I really feel like I could be successful there.”  He’s also looking to take some voice lessons so that Broadway becomes a possibility, but first he needs to get a work visa to work in the US.  This summer, he hopes to be a summer intern at Teen Vogue, and pursue his interest in fashion.

Visual art and fashion are strong interests for Matthew, but he knows that dance will always be a part of his life.  “I’ve been told that dance is such a hard thing for your body to forget – through muscle memory, training, technique – it’s always going to be with you.”

“I have so many other passions – when I graduated [from the National Ballet School], Mavis Staines [the school’s Artistic Director] said ‘there is no doubt that Matthew is going to be great, it just depends on what he chooses to be great in’.

It’s easy to see that she was right.

As Matthew was leaving our office, he noticed a plaqued quote above the door, and mentioned that he had it hanging on his wall:

 "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!  Live the life you've imagined."

- Thoreau