By KATLAN THOMERSON
Glasgow News 1
Trevor Edwards made a promise to give back to his hometown. He has used dance as the vehicle to deliver on that promise.
Prior to returning to Glasgow to open SOMA Center for Dance, Edwards used his performance art to travel the country and learn from a multitude of teachers. The love of dance blossomed in his hometown, then bloomed in Bowling Green.
“It was really sweet she gave me a full scholarship,” Edwards said while reflecting on a conversation with Martha Madison, founder of Dance Arts in Bowling Green. “She said to me, as long as you give your gift back to kids in the future, I don’t mind helping you.”
He began training with Madison after attending the Governors School for The Arts Program of Kentucky Performing Arts in Louisville before the start of his senior year at Glasgow High School. At the Governors School for the Arts, he received the David X. Thurman award for “most improved artist”.
Edwards first started training at Ms. Adriennes dance studio in Glasgow during his junior year of high school. He enjoyed his time at Ms. Adriennes, but decided to join Dance Arts of Bowling Green because of a comment made at the Governors School.
“They were like, you need to find another studio to go to so that you can continue your training to get to college or you’re not going to make it,” he said.
Upon graduating high school, Edwards was accepted into Western Kentucky University with a full ride.
“I’m very blessed. They only award one student in the program with full tuition,” he said.
While a student at WKU, Edwards was a professional dancer for Laura Valentine of Numinous Flux Dance Company in Nashville, a full-time sales associate at Old Navy, and a member of WKU’s dance company.
“It was crazy, but I did it,” he said.
After graduating in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and minor in Performing Arts, Edwards began working as a traveling professional dancer for the Jon Lehrer Dance Company of New York City, and as a dance instructor for Wrk Plc for Dancers of Nashville. He has danced professionally in several states across the country, but his favorite place to perform is in “My Old Kentucky Home,” an outdoor stadium in Bardstown called the Stephen Foster Drama Association.
After a little more than a year of working for someone else, Edwards decided to become an entrepreneur.
“I was like, I’m doing so much work for other people, why not invest that time and energy into myself. So, I opened up SOMA,” he said.
In 2019, Edwards moved back home to start a dance studio in Glasgow. Inspired by his work in semantics in college, he named his studio after the Greek word “Soma” meaning “a body.”
“At SOMA our mission is to unearth movement as a vital form of expression. That unearthing comes from the discovery each student makes within themselves through their movement practice,” he explained.
The students at the studio are able to demonstrate what they learn through several performances during the year. Most recently, they performed The Nutcracker at the Plaza Theatre in downtown Glasgow. They are next scheduled to perform Snow White.
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