Movers Unlimited covers various dance styles from ballet to hip-hop

Jose Romero
editor-in-chief

Members of NE Campus’ touring dance company Movers Unlimited rhythmically vibrated the studio as they practiced for upcoming events.

“In 2009, in the spring, I started teaching here at TCC NE Campus, and I just fell in love with my students,” NE dance professor Kihyoung Choi said. “They were just the most hardworking students I have ever taught.”

Choi is now the director for Movers Unlimited. She said the passion and work ethic she experienced from those students was amazing and, after all these years, it’s a sensation she still feels for the current members of the team. It’s also a sensation her students get from her as well.

“How Bob Ross says ‘Anybody can paint,’ Kihyoung says ‘Anybody can dance,’” Movers Unlimited member Isabel Soto said. “It doesn’t matter how much training you have.”

Soto has been on the team for four weeks, and she said Choi always caters her teaching style to different levels of experience. If somebody has less experience, then Choi will approach them differently than somebody who has been dancing for years.

“She really pushes us so we can all grow as one,” Soto said.

Even though she hasn’t been on the team for too long, Soto describes them as a family and a group with which she can share her love for dance.

“I never really understood that concept of having a dance family until I came here and experienced it for myself,” she said.

Having such a strong support system for her personal and dance life has been a positive experience for her, she said.

Movers Unlimited member Gary Clark said his first experience with the team was when he was in high school because they came to his school to perform.

“It was different from any type of dance I’ve ever seen,” Clark said.

He was going to audition for Movers right out of high school, but he didn’t try out until two years later.

Clark was afraid he wasn’t going to make the cut because of the difficulty of the audition and because he’s asthmatic. He has been a part of Movers for three years now.

“I’d give my last breath for these people,” Clark said.

An unforgettable moment for Najwa Seyedmorteza was in the spring of 2013.

“We performed a dance called ‘TAE,’ and something happened on the stage,” Seyedmorteza said. “It happened to all of us at one time. We felt it as a group.”

She said it felt as if the world stopped around them. The only thing that mattered was what was on stage. That sensation is something Seyedmorteza has continued chasing in her performances.

“There was something so beautiful about it,” she said. “That was the most impactful moment that still lingers in me.”

Movers Unlimited is preparing for its show “Unwavering,” which will run in December.