The Ailey School

Tristen Matthews is originally from Washington DC and currently resides in Leesburg, Virginia. She discovered dance at a very early age and by the age of 4 she was dancing at the Dance Institute of Washington. At the age of 8, she she began training at the Washington School of Ballet, and at the Kennedy Center in the Dance Theater of Harlem youth program.  She attended the Metropolitan School of the Arts (MSA), in Fairfax Virginia where she trained in ballet, modern, jazz, and contemporary.  Tristen's performance experience includes The Nutcracker with the Joffrey Ballet, works by Merce Cunningham and Jose Limon, and in Florence, Italy with Roy Assf and Alleyne Dance where she also performed her own choreography. Tristen received a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she majored in contemporary/ modern dance and studied a variety of techniques including Cunningham, Graham, Limon, and Ballet.  In her senior year, she attended The Ailey School Independent Study Program where trained intensively in Horton, Ballet, Graham, Dunham, Contemporary, and West African and was mentored by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater member Patrick Coker. Tristen is currently a member of the contemporary ballet company, Gin Dance Company.