'Embrace failure': The Next Step stars share their advice ahead of Australian tour

The world is made up of two kinds of parents: Those whose children take dance classes, and those who don't.

Those in the second group, who regularly drive their children to performances, picking feathers and sequins off the floor of their homes and cars, will be very familiar with a TV series called The Next Step.

The Canadian 'scripted drama' follows a cast of young characters trying out for their place at A-Troupe, a high-level dance studio.

Watch the video above.

There are 10 glorious seasons of The Next Step for dance parents to feast on, now showing on Stan.

The show wrapped up with its final season in 2025, which was devastating at the time, but now The Next Step: Legacy World Tour has arrived in Australia and features the biggest stars from the show.

Two of the cast members who will be performing are Alexandra Chaves, who plays Piper, and Victoria Baldesarra, who plays Michelle.

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While Baldesarra and Chaves play characters in the scripted drama, they take their dancing seriously. Both performers told nine.com.au they started dancing when they were three years old.

Chaves began with baby ballet and was competing by the time she was seven.

"Some of my favourite memories are those after-school drives straight to the studio. My mum would pick me up from school and drive me," she recalls.

"I was at dance about five times a week, roughly 25 hours a week. I basically lived at the studio. I remember eating dinner in the change room with my best friends (all my dance friends) between classes.

"Those friendships and that energy are something I still carry with me."

Baldesarra remembers being the "only dancer in the class that didn't cry for their mum".

"I didn't want to leave the studio. My mum always drove me to dance straight from school, and once I began competitively dancing, I was at the studio five to six days a week."

By the time the pair auditioned for The Next Step, they had several years of competitive dancing under their feathered and sequinned belts but hadn't yet experienced dancing at a professional level.

"I knew a few people who had talent agents, but I didn't really understand that there was a whole world and industry that could employ me outside of the competitive dance world," Chaves said.

"That audition opened my eyes to the fact that performing could be a real career path."

Baldesarra landed her role on The Next Step when she was just 13 years old.

"I was lucky enough to begin my professional dance career at such a young age," she said.

"It wasn't until I was I was around 17 years old that I began to realise I really wanted to continue on with dancing and acting as my career."

Chaves said the cast of The Next Step remains close over a decade later.

"Dance creates this unique closeness because you're vulnerable together, you're pushing your body, expressing emotions and supporting each other through that," she said.

"The bonds I've formed with fellow dancers are some of the deepest relationships I have.

"Many of my closest friends to this day are people I grew up dancing with, and the cast of The Next Step has become a second family.

"When you tour together and perform together for years, those connections last a lifetime."

Baldesarra said she and her castmates feel like "family".

"They will always be a part of my life. I feel as though dancers just have this unspoken language and bond with one another forever," she said.

The Next Step: Legacy World Tour starts in Melbourne this week and will arrive at the State Theatre in Sydney for two shows on Saturday April 17 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

The show will then move to Geelong, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Newcastle, and Canberra.

The show kicks off in Melbourne tomorrow and for Sydney fans, best availability is Sutherland Pavillion Performing Arts Centre. Find out more here.

Chaves' advice for budding young dancers is to "embrace failure".

"My character Piper in The Next Step failed at her aerial so many times before she finally landed it, and that storyline really mirrors real life," she says.

"You have to fail before you get the skill. That's part of the process. The faster you embrace that, the quicker you'll continue to evolve and level up.

"That is something I wish I could tell my younger self, and I hope that young dancers can remind themselves of it when things feel hard.

"Keep showing up, keep being brave, and trust the process."

Baldesarra said her advice for children and dancers aspiring to be professionals is to "train in all styles as much as possible".

"Being versatile is so key in the industry, and also staying humble, staying grounded."

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