After performing with two of the world’s top ballet companies, Drew Nelson found himself trading pirouettes for problem sets and embarking on an entirely new journey as a student at Tufts. Following a full career with both the Royal Danish Ballet and the Boston Ballet, he has made an impressive transition from stage to scholar.
Nelson was born in Omaha, Neb. He spent some of his childhood near Wichita, Kan., but grew up mostly in Plainsboro, N.J. When he was 14, he moved to Tampa, Fla. to train with the ballet teacher Peter Stark, who has a reputation for training talented dancers.
In Tampa, Nelson competed in the Youth Grand Prix (formerly Youth America Grand Prix), where his talent quickly caught the attention of major ballet schools internationally.
“In the second year [of the Youth Grand Prix], I was offered a full scholarship to the Royal Ballet School by Gailene Stock who was the director at the time,” Nelson said. “So, I moved to London when I was 16 … by myself.”
Moving to a foreign country was difficult, but it was made easier by the fact that most of Nelson’s family was transitioning at the same time.
“I moved with my mom to Orlando … at the time my sister was studying in Leipzig, Germany … and then my oldest sister was starting her college education,” Nelson said. “The family kind of all just split up at once, and so in that sense, it made it easier to move away as a teenager.”
From eighth grade onwards, Nelson completed all of his academic work online while studying ballet.
“My high school classes were online before Zoom was cool,” Nelson said.
Nelson auditioned for the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen while studying at the Royal Ballet School. He was offered a position and chose to leave school halfway through his third year to begin his career.
“I left London and the acting director [of the Royal Ballet School] at the time, Jay Jolley, pushed back against me wanting to leave school and just start my career,” he said. “I was … adamant about leaving at that point though.”
Nelson moved to Copenhagen on short notice in 2014 and began dancing with the Royal Danish Ballet in the corps. There, Nelson developed the reputation of a dancer who could quickly pick up choreography.
He recalled a time when a dancer hurt his ankle the day before a performance and needed to be replaced. That night, his boss called him and asked him to step in.
“I learned a … 70-minute full ballet that night and then performed it the next afternoon,” Nelson said.
Though Nelson loved the culture of Copenhagen, after a while he was ready for a change.
“My reputation at the Royal Danish Ballet was the corps dancer who could learn everything really, really quickly and who could learn everybody’s position and jump in for anyone,” he said. “But, … that meant that I was learning a lot of different roles — not necessarily performing as much, just kind of being a ‘swing,’ to use a theater term.”
At the time, his former coach and mentor, Peter Stark, worked at the Boston Ballet and connected Nelson with the director, Mikko Nissinen. After watching the videos Nelson had sent, the director offered him a job in the corps. In 2015, he moved to Boston to dance with the company.
“My favorite piece that I performed is Alexander Ekman’s ‘Cacti,’ which I actually learned in Copenhagen and then they were doing it in Boston the following year, so I got to kind of learn it and explore that piece twice and then perform it with Boston Ballet,” he said.
He rose through the ranks of the Boston Ballet, including performing the principal role of the “Snow King” in “The Nutcracker.”
“After three years, I was promoted to second soloist, and I had worked pretty hard to get to that point,” Nelson said. “I felt accomplished and really grateful just to be on that trajectory toward ultimately becoming a principal dancer, which is what I wanted.”
However, Nelson struggled with injuries and retired from professional dance in 2020. After retiring from dance, Nelson began working in real estate but soon learned that it wasn’t the right job for him.
“I worked in real estate for about six months, and I absolutely hated it,” he said. “I was always used to working with diverse people [in the ballet world] … It was just so jarring to be in a room with other real estate salespeople, realtors and … looking around and everybody looks like me.”
“I didn’t feel like what I was doing was having an impact,” Nelson added.
Nelson decided to pursue medicine and began taking courses at Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown, which was compatible with his untraditional secondary education.
“Bunker Hill allowed me to start right up … I had done online high school and went right into dancing professionally, so I didn't take the SAT or the ACT,” Nelson said. “I had done a couple of college classes through Boston Ballet's partnership with Northeastern University, so I already had college credits, and I was able to use that [to enter] Bunker Hill.”
After focusing on chemistry, biology and physics at Bunker Hill, Nelson applied to transfer to complete his bachelor’s degree in biology. As a nontraditional student, he was drawn by Tufts’ Resumed Education for Adult Learning program.
“Tufts just seemed like the best fit with being a part of the REAL program,” Nelson, a member of the Class of 2025, said. “It just felt like I was going to be valued as an older student, respected and understood.”
At Tufts, Nelson is the head mechanic at Tufts Bikes. His interest in bikes began while he was dancing in Copenhagen. He also volunteers with the nearby Community Pedal Power E-Bike Lending Library.
“When I moved to Boston, I bought a bike because it’s a small city, and it seemed like a good way to get around,” he said. “It’s a pretty big difference going from biking in Copenhagen to Boston.”
He also owns the “Kamala is brat” cargo bike many students have seen around campus.
Since coming to Tufts, Nelson has shifted his long-term focus from a pre-med track to a pre-physician’s assistant track. Immediately following his graduation this spring, he intends to find work at a bicycle shop in the Boston area.
“[A] physician’s assistant [is] ultimately what I want to be. I think that’s the way that I can have the biggest impact on people’s lives as a former dancer who kind of gets it,” Nelson said. “But, in May, I'm applying for a couple of positions in bike shops … I just need to do something fun with bikes because that’s what I’m really passionate about.”
