Student's passion for dance drives busy workload

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Balancing work with play and class schedules with work schedules is an overwhelming task for most college students.

But Travis Staton-Marrero does it all with ease.

Marrero, a theatre junior, manages to juggle school with his three jobs.

“I’m kind of a workaholic,” he said. “I do like to keep myself really busy, but I see all the things I’m doing as potential steppingstones to my career.”

Marrero said he doesn’t mind his hectic work schedule because it’s at these jobs where he is able to fulfill his true passion: dance.

Marrero grew up around dance. His mother, Rochester Hills, Mich., resident Elaine Marrero, also was a professional dancer and now owns Troy Dance Studio & Bodyworks, where she says her son first found his passion.

“This kid just has this natural thing in his heart,” she said. “There are pictures of Travis when he was little in his tap class, and he was the only boy, but he was so determined.”

After graduating high school, Marrero spent two years at Oakland University studying hip-hop and ballet. Wanting new experiences and the benefit of MSU’s strong theatre department, Marrero transferred to MSU in the fall.

In addition to being a student, Marrero teaches hip-hop at Spartan Dance Center, 3498 Lake Lansing Road, and Michelle’s Academy of Dance & Performing Arts Center, 101 Appian Drive, in Brighton, Mich. He is also the co-director of the nonprofit contemporary dance company Michigan Dance Project, which he said is his most rewarding job to date.

“I’ve taken a particular liking to choreography and directing, and this is my first time working at a (legitimate) dance studio where I’m getting to choreograph and direct,” he said.

He also has performed for Motor City Movement and as an ensemble dancer for singer Miley Cyrus.

Marrero said that dance always has been his outlet of expression.

“A lot of the things I go through in life I let out through the performing arts,” he said. “It’s a way for me to express myself internally and externally.”

Marrero said that his Michigan Dance Project Co-director Kathy King agrees.

“Me and Kathy always joke,” he said. “We tell each other that when everything else is going on (in our lives), to just make a dance about it.”

Owner of Spartan Dance Center Tiffany Russell said she and the studio’s instructors were blown away by Marrero’s skills as a dance instructor.

“(Marrero’s) ability to break things down for all levels of dancer is pretty amazing,” Russell said. “His style of dance is completely unique to him. He does a great job of going back and re-teaching and reviewing the whole (dance) section.”

Russell said she tries to take Marrero’s three classes as often as she can.

“It’s so much fun,” she said. “It’s really hip-hop, cutting edge. He challenges everybody to branch outside their realm.”

Marrero aspires to move to Los Angeles after graduation to pursue a career as a professional choreographer. He has taken particular interest in joining the Monsters of Hip Hop, a group of professional choreographers who teach their own classes and perform at shows across the country.

But no matter where he ends up, his mother said she always will be proud.

“I never thought that Travis would follow my steps and do what I do,” Elaine Marrero said. “He saw me struggle, and to see him take that risk, knowing how hard it is to survive (as a professional dancer), how can you not be proud?”

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