Dancers prepare for spring concert

By Kathryn Kelman/ne news editor

NE Campus will host Within, a dance concert, May 5-6 in the NE Theater.

The concert will feature students, faculty, staff and Movers Unlimited, NE’s dance company. Performances will showcase multiple dance styles such as ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop and musical theater.

“It’s a pretty wide range of people who have different levels,” dance professor Kihyoung Choi said.

Because the concert will feature so many different dancers at different levels, Choi hopes the performances will motivate audience members to dance too.

“We wanna give that message that everyone is welcome here at TCC,” Movers Unlimited dancer Shara Janolo said, “that everyone can dance even though you’ve never had any dance background or anything like that.”

Overall, though, Janolo wants both audience members and performers to enjoy the concert.

“That’s the number one goal here,” she said.

Audience members should also expect to see how much the dance program on NE Campus has grown, Janolo said.

“We started as just a really small company, but now we are dancing at Dallas Dance Fest and ACDFA,” she said.

ACDFA, the American College Dance Festival Association, puts together a national dance festival in the spring.

“They [Movers Unlimited] are a very renown pre-professional dance company because of their level of technique and proficiency and also their artistry,” Choi said.

Some audience members are coming just to see Movers Unlimited perform, she said.

The company spends 12 hours on Mondays and Wednesdays rehearsing. It’s an intense and grueling schedule, but when they leave around 11 p.m., they’re happy and energized, Choi said.

“Without dance, I would feel dull,” she said. “I dance because I have to. I cannot live my life without dancing.”

For the company members, dancing makes them complete as people, Movers Unlimited dancer Ramiro Martinez said.

“When you don’t have it, you feel like there’s something missing,” he said. “And when you’re dancing 12 hours a day, it’s like, ‘OK, I feel complete. I’m myself. I can sleep.’”

The concert will start at 7:30 p.m. May 5 and 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 6. Admission is free for TCC students, faculty and staff and $5 for the general public.

For more information, contact Choi at kihyoung.choi@tccd.edu or 817-515-6638. For reservations, contact the NE Theater at neplayhouse@tccd.edu or 817-515-6687.