CANADA cover feature Andrea Matei 11 YEARS-OLD NOBELTON, ON THE AGENCY TALENT MANAGEMENT @andreamateidance Andrea is a passionate young artist with a background in competitive dance, an emerging model and actor from Nobleton, ON, Canada. A French Immersion student, Andrea is hardworking and dedicated in everything she does, from school, to dance, to acting and modeling, to sketching and learning how to cook. Outside of school, Andrea typically spends most of her afternoons and weekends at the dance studio (Canadian Dance Unit @canadian_dance_unit) training in a multitude of genres, including ballet, jazz, tap, acro, hip-hop, lyrical and contemporary. Now during lock-down times, she continues to train via zoom taking regular group and private classes, as well as many ad-hoc combo classes from various reputable North American choreographers. Andrea fell in love with dance with her very first ballet class at the age of 3, and has been actively pursuing her passion ever since. She has grown into a talented, driven and hardworking performer with high ambitions in the Entertainment Industry. Aside from many regional and national competitions under her belt, Andrea was also part of National Team Canada Dance (@teamcanadadanceofficial) 2018 and travelled to Warsaw, Poland to compete at the World Dance Championship (@ idoworlddance) in Ballet and Jazz where she contributed to 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medals in the Children’s Division. In the summer of 2020, she took to the world stage again, as part of the Virtual World Championships for Performing Arts (@wcopaofficial, @wcopa.team.canada), qualifying as a semi-finalist and bringing home a Gold Medal for Canada in the Solo Dance Category with her contemporary solo Spiegel I’m Spiegel, choreographed by Francesca Stabile (@franstabiledance). While Andrea trains competitively in dance, her true passion is performing for an audience and bringing art to life through dance and acting. In December 2019, she performed at The Meridian Hall with the Toronto International Ballet Theater (@torontoballet) in The Nutcracker, along renowned stars of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. Earlier that summer, Andrea participated in the Toronto International Dance Festival (@tiydf) and Canada International Youth Dance Festival with a Jazz Solo Performance titled Perfidia, choreographed by Kassandra Sciacca (@sciaccakon). Andrea is just as passionate about acting as she is about dance, and is confident that her journey as an actress is just starting. She has recently signed with The Agency Talent Management in Toronto (@ theagencytalentmgmt), represented by Aleksandra Vujicic and Marilyn Misaljevic, and is actively working on her acting skills, training with Armstrong Studios (@armstrongacting) in Toronto, as well as attending various industry workshops, taking advantage of their zoom options. In December 2020 Andrea debuted with a lead role in the short film “A Dance with Cinderella” produced by a local teen production company, With Grace Productions (@with_grace_productions). With an artistic heart and love for everything beautiful, Andrea is a proud supporter of all things Canadian. She is happily promoting several local business Photographer: Chad Pilkington Photography in the Performing Arts Industry, such as Gabie’s Boutique (@gabiesboutiqueo Newmarket Dance Store), Chemistry Dance Competition (@chemistry.dancecompetition Ontario Dance Competition), True North Dance Convention (@tntdanceconvention Ontario Dance Convention) and Bellenae (@bellenae, @bellenae_fit Toronto Based Balance Board and training tools for dancers). Andrea’s most recent achievement as an influencer, is being selected to represent Grishko Canada (@grishkocanada) as one of their 2021 Ambassadors and is proud to call herself a Grishko Girl. As a youth model, Andrea has worked with several local photographers to build and expand her portfolio. She has been featured in several online and print magazines to date, such as Inspiring Teens Magazine, More Than Dancers, Dent Model Magazine, Ivy, Lemonade, and Teen Look Magazine (twice). Being a cover model was always Andrea’s modelling dream and she is grateful and humbled by this experience with Top Teen Magazine. Andrea’s hope is that her hard work and dedication can serve to inspire today’s youth to do the same in the pursuit of their dreams. 20 - Top Teen Magazine - Special Edition
top teen Photographer: Chad Pilkington Photography teenlook.ca - 21