Concert brings in multiple dance programs for collaborative effort

Logan Evans
managing editor

NW dance company Mosaic Dance Project will perform their annual Fall concert “Mosaic and Friends in Motion” Oct. 30 on NW campus.

This comes during the first semester back for the company after nearly three semesters of performing virtually. Company director Lacreacia Sanders hopes to rekindle the spirit of past years.

“Students are excited, and there’s just so much energy that’s come back into the space,” she said. “We’re trying to catch our breath.”

Unlike past years, the Oct. 30 event will feature contributions from dancers outside the company, including jazz and ballet students and guest dancers from Chisholm Trail High School.

“We really wanted to make sure the title of our concert shows that it’s not just about Mosaic,” Sanders said. “It’s really about this whole community.”

Sanders said many of her students felt isolated performing virtually and are excited to showcase their work in person.

NW associate dance professor Amy Jennings believes the return to in-person performance is a return to the essence of what the art form is about.

“Dance is so visceral,” she said. “I always talk about it as the soul pushing past the bones, through the flesh and out to the audience.”

The Oct. 30 event will consist of a 1 p.m. matinee performance and a 4 p.m. afternoon performance.

Right before the concert, NW Dance Club will participate in the 2021 Walk To End Alzheimer’s. Students and faculty will walk six miles around the lake by NW campus from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to help raise money for Alzheimer’s research.

The campus walk is tied to a larger event happening throughout Fort Worth, centered around the main walk at The Shops at Clearfork. Jennings — who has done extensive work with dance and memory loss — spearheaded the Dance Club’s inclusion.

“This semester, I just really wanted to give back,” she said.

Outside of NW Campus, dance programs across the district continue to rebuild. On October 16, TCC held “Converge Re-imagined,” a concert featuring local high school dance companies, local dance studios and TCC faculty. The event was a success, said SE associate dance professor Brandy Niccolai-Belfi.

She points to the cooperation of dance programs across the district in bringing the art form back to TCC.

“It really was a collaboration between my campus, NW Campus and the South Campus,” she said. “If I didn’t have those other campuses on my side, I don’t know if it would have gone as smoothly.”