On April 1, Greenhill’s annual Mosaics Concert transformed the Rose Hall Stage into a dance showcase bringing together middle school elective dancers and athletic dancers, the upper school Dance Company, and the upper school Dance for Athletes class in one night.
Over the course of nine pieces, the concert showcased the program’s different aspects like dance films, vocals with background dancers, and many others.
“Every year it’s always going to be called ‘Mosaics’ because it’s always going to be an assortment of things,” Middle School and Upper School Dance Teacher Gypsy Ingram said. “That is the annual dance concert that we always look forward to, and it represents all of the things that Greenhill Dance is sort of becoming.”
In total, 40 students performed in the concert this year, spanning multiple groups and grade levels.
“There are nine elective dancers,” Ingram said. “There were 20 athletic dancers from the winter trimester, and then seven members of Dance Company and four awesome guys from Dance for Athletes.”
Seventh and eighth-grade elective dancers performed a musical theater piece and a contemporary piece they’ve been building since January. Winter dancers, who choose dance as their sport, were in projected films. The upper school Dance for Athletes class was featured for the first time ever as well.
The programming also included individual dances. Seventh graders Poppy Kuntz and Bailee Thomas each performed solos. Kuntz danced a classical ballet variation from “Sleeping Beauty”, while Thomas did a jazz funk solo to the song “Fix My Crown”.
“I did [my solo] over and over at home and in class,” Kuntz said. “Everyone was really supportive and I really enjoyed performing it.”
Another moment of the night was a performance by eighth grade singer and songwriter Alex Gamble, who performed her original song.
“Alex danced to her song Own Way and then our middle schoolers backed her up with supporting dance in the background,” Ingram said.
Behind the scenes, the concert was a product of months of work. Middle school elective dance classes meet every other day, and students have been rehearsing their pieces since the start of the semester.
“To prepare for my dances, I watched the videos and constantly reviewed them,” Thomas said. “When I practiced, I did it how I would do it in the show so that helped me with my confidence and energy while performing.”
“We would learn one whole dance, and then it would become part of our warm-up and then we’d review that dance and keep it in our bodies,” Ingram said.
The Upper School contributed one major work, a 16‑minute piece about dreams and nightmares. Unlike the shorter middle school pieces, once the dancers stepped onstage, they never left.
The choreography introduced a complex visual element which was large, movable boxes that dancers pushed and climbed on throughout the piece.
“The challenge is we’ve never made a work like this before, and we were using these giant boxes that we were moving around the space all the time,” Ingram said.
Even with those challenges, the atmosphere stayed positive according to Ingram.
“The great thing about them is they’re each other’s best cheerleaders,” Ingram said. “They are always cheering each other on and saying, ‘We can do it, let’s push harder!’”
