Camp Westie Blog

We have to start here with this Jack and Jill from MadJam 2014. That's Trend Veal dancing one hard-to-believe Jack and Jill. She's got sass and spunk and musicality out the wazoo; she's wildly, completely unique. And there's precious few with her passion to teach beginners and help them find their voices.

With such presence, you might be surprised to learn that Tren hardly spoke in high school. "My classmates wouldn't recognize me if they saw me dance! I was so quiet!" she told me when we sat down to chat at MadJam this year. "Growing up, I was always shy. Literally a mute. You ask my classmates from high school about Trendlyon and they'll tell you I was quiet." This extended to class where she wouldn't even answer questions she knew the answer to. "I feared being wrong even if I knew the answer.

"It was dance that changed things," Tren said. "It's helped me become more confident and find my voice!"

Her's is a crazy important story, one that gets to the heart of what dance is about and the purpose it has in our lives—and that is, namely, to change us. And dance does that by getting to our fears and wrecking havoc on the limitations we'd set for ourselves. The result? We end up being more us.

Tren started partner dancing in Texas through a style called "Texas Swing Out." It was a performance team and, while she didn't have any formal dance training, she jumped at the chance. Growing up, dance was deep in her family's and community's culture. "I don't remember not dancing! Everyone was always dancing." It was a deeply social and communal activity and laid the groundwork for how she approaches dance today.

West coast happened at a crossover event. Tren saw a woman slide across the floor in an competition. That slide was everything—it was spontaneous and expressive and broke all the rules. She knew she needed to learn this dance.

Tren's personal journey through west coast has not been easy or quick. "I was in novice for a long minute! It took me a long time to figure things out. But I wouldn't change that process. It's the journey again!"

But her biggest challenge was when she couldn't dance at all. In 2015, she injured her right knee and could barely walk. "It was so hard but I knew I had to take a break if I wanted to keep dance in my life for the long run." She had a torn MCL level 2. When she went to physical therapy, it grew more irritated and inflamed, revealing the root cause: a cyst. But six months after the cyst removal, she tore her left knee in an identical way. "I was so down and depressed," she remembers. "It felt like maybe this was a sign that I shouldn't be dancing at all." But as she healed, she knew the break from dance was just a season and she was meant to do this.

It taught her not to take dance granted. "I'm more grateful now when I dance and appreciate it so much. If you're good at something, it's easy to take it for granted. Now, I'm just happy every time I dance!"

The dance floor is definitely meant for Tren. She's a vibrant presence — there wasn't an unsmiling face at her recent "Michael Jackson is King" workshop at MadJam. She says that in dance, "…you express yourself through movement. It's poetry through movement."

Tren has certainly come far from her silent youthful self. Today, she can laugh about that time and observe that it was all rooted in a fear of being judged. "I don't know where that came from! But it's so powerful and controlling. I've let go of that fear now which has been a huge gift in my life."

And that's the gift she wants to give her students: let go of fear and find confidence.

As in Tren's life, she sees her her students find confidence when they use dance to express themselves. "It's hard to not compare yourself to other people, especially for beginners who see everyone dancing better than them! And I want my students to know that you can use them for inspiration, but you have to find your own way of expressing yourself. It's not about what you're seeing out there—it's about what you have inside and enjoying the journey."

Tren takes special care not to just teach her own unique styling but rather, to equip her students in finding their own voice. "I can show you how to do this styling, then I make you ask, ‘How can I make this mine?' I don't want you to look exactly like me!"

This process works when you see dance like Tren does: as a journey. "It's like life! Life is a journey too. You always have something to learn. You never know it all. The more you learn, the more you know what you don't know. Not about making it or being the top."

This philosophy permeates all Tren does in her career as teacher and competitor and choreographer and human. It's what underpins the reputation she and Markus have as being "….two of the humblest and wisest champions out there." And that's a direct quote from an advanced dancer who's worked with them for years!

Tren will be bringing her brilliant and caring spirit to Camp Westie for the second time, after being a founding Camp Counselor in 2015. "Everybody should go to Camp Westie. Like: west coast swing in the mountains with cabins and nature — it doesn't get any better than that!"

It was also Tren's first time at a camp and also her first campfire! She was in her injured season at the time but still says that it was a "way better than I thought it would be injured! Refreshing, woods, campfire, all this space, green nature — it was amazing."

Tren, you are amazing. We can't wait to have you with us out in the woods and dancing on two happy and healthy knees!