By Kirsten Mahon/nw news/multimedia editor

Mosaic in Motion will feature NW dance students in solo and group performances to modern, contemporary, jazz, African and hip-hop music.

The Oct. 25 concert is the Mosaic Dance Company’s annual showcase, featuring five soloists who will perform pieces choreographed by guests such as former NW dance students Brandon Mason and Baldo Paramo.

“The choreography varies between the student, faculty and guest,” Sanders said.

NW dance student Brianna Johnson has been dancing since she was 2 years old and will perform a piece choreographed for her by friend and former student Paramo.

“Him and I are really close because we move the same,” Johnson said. “It’s fun being one-on-one.”

Johnson said the pressure of performing a piece choreographed by someone else is intense because mistakes are more obvious than they are in a piece choreographed by the performer.

After Johnson graduated from high school, she was told to join Mosaic and referred to Sanders and Amy Sleigh, NW dance associate professor, by her high school dance teachers. This is her third year in Mosaic and in the show, Mosaic in Motion.

“It’s fun but nerve-wracking,” Johnson said about auditions for Mosaic.

Even though she’d been dancing for so long, she didn’t know what to expect, she said. 

However, the dance instructors are easy to approach, she said.

“Now I know how each of them move,” she said. “They have their own style. It’s not like a set style like jazz or ballet. It’s not that.”

Johnson described the ability of recognizing someone else’s movements — the way she knows her instructors’ dance styles and her classmates’.

“It’s the beat of the movement, not the technicality,” she said.

The TCC community is invited to the performances at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. in the WTLO Theatre Northwest. General admission is $5, student admission is $1 and TCC faculty and staff admission is free.