Four students from The Mosaic School were chosen to join IDEAS Academy dance students for a field trip to Dance Day at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Friday, Feb. 3.
Sixth-grader Diamond Gallegos, seventh-graders Miranda Kelm and Rayne O’Muineachan and eighth-grader Makaylia Muhammed were chosen for their outstanding effort and focus in class, their leadership qualities as well as their natural ability to pick up dance technique, Mosaic dance teacher Rayna Rokicki said.
“Traditionally, middle school students have not been invited to enjoy this experience,” Rokicki said. “We are happy to announce that (UW-Milwaukee) allowed us to bring some of our promising middle school students this year.”
IDEAS dance students who attended are Teanna Zillmer, Kyler Raines,
Syrah Gehrke, Katie Toeller, Kaventeuna Goodlow, Angelica Ybanez, Jamal Muhammad,
Laura Obear, Sarah Baughman, Linsey Walters, Mackenzie Dale, Jeremy Conyers,
Ashley Krueger, Indigo Beilfuss, Chuyy Xiong, Kassondra Dean, Cassandra Warner,
Kali Lidholm, Akilah Allen, Jesse Velazquez, Samantha Jo Wilsing and Vanessa Diaz.
The students attended an abbreviated performance of “Winterdances: Fate/Love & Loss” presented by students and faculty of the UW-Milwaukee Dance Department. They then took modern, African and improvisation dance technique classes. After a dinner break, students attended the full-length, evening performance of “Winterdances: Fate/Love & Loss.”
Etude High School alum Libby Schmitz, a junior majoring in dance at UWM, was among the performers.
“Both Molly Zielke (IDEAS and ESAA dance teacher) and myself (Mosaic and ESAA dance teacher) graduated with dance degrees from the UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts,” Rokicki said. “It is a challenging and rigorous program with esteemed faculty from major dance companies in the United States. The opportunity for our students to be able to experience college-level technique classes and view current dance works is an unforgettable experience that will both challenge them and inspire them as they strive to create original works of dance at Mosaic and IDEAS.”
“I hope that students begin to understand how dance uses the body to communicate ideas in a powerful way,” she continued. “Besides being enjoyable to watch, dance is a platform for expressing key ideas impacting our community and our world.”
