Alexandra Chaves

Alexandra Chaves was born on May 9, 2001, in Kitchener, a city in south-eastern Ontario, and was raised by her parents alongside her younger sister, Olivia. Chaves began taking dancing lessons when she was a child and by the time she turned 12 years old, she had won numerous national and international competitions, which in turn, would earn her a spot in the professional program at the National Ballet School of Canada and a membership of the Toronto Raptors junior hip-hop crew.

Her fledgling dancing career came to a screeching halt when a simple case of tonsillitis sent her to a hospital. Upon further examinations, the doctor found that she had cardiac arrhythmia. They told her to stop dancing until they figured out the severity of it. For the next nine months, she could not do the one thing she loved the most: she could not dance.

Instead of spending her time just by waiting for the results, she attended her classes at the St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School and turned her attention to acting. She took acting classes and found an agent for herself. Her video won the junior meteorologist competition at Global News and she landed a supporting role in the web series ‘BeingGirl’. About a year later, she was informed by her doctors that she could start dancing again. Besides dancing and acting, Chaves is also interested in photography. She often posts the pictures she has taken on her social media handles.

It was Chaves’ dance teacher, Jay T. Schramek, at Dimensions in Dance and her agent who suggested that she should try auditioning for a part in the season four of Family Channel’s ‘The Next Step’, a teen drama shot in the mockumentary style. Chaves was subsequently cast as Piper, the younger sister of James (Trevor Tordjman), one of the main characters of the show. She soon garnered public attention with her performance and was part of the cast in the following and most recent season as well. She is also set to return as Piper in the season six, which will probably premiere in August 2018.