Err, this is tricky to explain. The simple answer is YES, but it's not actually an '-ing verb' that follows 'to' here. It's a gerund. This means the '-ing verb' acts as a noun, or is part of a phrase that acts as a noun. "I look forward to.... taking my interests to a new level." Here, "taking my interests to a new level" is a thing you look forward to. To compare: "I look forward to school." Same structure, this time "school" is the thing. In both cases, "to" means "towards". It's not part of an infinitive verb. "I eat to live." is correct, but "I eat to living" makes no sense. When '-ing' is used as a verb, you put 'to be' in front of it: "I am living", "you are still boring", "she will be going", etc

"I look forward to taking" is one of the few instances where this would work. You would not use -ing following "I want to" or "I hope to" or "I dread to" unless you put the word "be" inbetween to and the -ing verb as in "I hope to be taking classes next year."