Henry Hill is a Core Artist with Trillium Performing Arts Collective. He moved here from Richmond, VA, just a couple of years ago after being a guest artist with Trillium a few times. Hill now resides in White Sulphur Springs.
Q: How long have you been connected with Trillium?
This September will make six years. Time flies when you’re creating art! I first performed at a Friday Night Alive in September of 2011.
Q: When did you start dancing?
I actually did not start formally training until my fifth year in college. I attended James Madison University as a music education major, went through my senior year recital as a clarinetist, and a year later I took my first ever modern dance class. I came to college with two passions (music and teaching)… I left with three!
Q: You also teach Zumba. What is that? How long have you been teaching?
Zumba is a Latin infused dance fitness workout that became more popular about six years ago but has really been around for a little over 15 years. I started teaching this format when I moved back to Virginia from New York City where I was already teaching private salsa lessons for couples. I love inspiring others in life and along their fitness journeys.
Q: As the artistic coordinator for the March Trillium concert, please explain the theme and your inspiration.
I wanted to do an answer to the question left from our last concert in November, “Something with Teeth,” which was performed the week of the election. Needless to say there was a lot of “inspiration” to choose from. The reality is necessary to face in order to begin the healing process. The title of this concert is “Breaking Boundaries,” and the focus is on moving onward and upward through even the most tumultuous of times. There is strength in unity and we have to realize that at the end of all of this, we still have each other. Let’s make a difference and help make this world shine a little brighter!
Q: Trillium is not just dance, so what else will be in the show?
As we strive to push forward and welcome all mediums of art, there will also be a couple of theater works by our core artists Michael Butrill and Devin Preston.
Q: You’ve invited guest artists as part of the concert. Can you tell us a little about them?
I am very excited to have two amazing guest artists. Shannon Hummel is the artistic director, choreographer, and arts educator of Cora Dance based out of Brooklyn, NY, and founded in 1997. She has performed her work all over the city and the United States and continues to be an innovator in the dance world through her school and her company. My former dance company from Richmond, VA, rva dance collective, will also be bringing their eight-member company under the leadership of co-artistic directors Jess Burgess and Danica Kalemdaroglu. With the spirit of collaboration with other artists as their main theme, the company “possesses a rare ability to combine high quality choreography with audience accessibility.”
Q: What do you hope the audience will take with them from this concert?
I hope this concert really makes the audience think about the different issues addressed through the work of the artists. How can we break our own boundaries within so that we can evolve as a unified front? I hope this concert helps people to realize that at the end of the day, we all bleed the same color.
Trillium’s March Concert is Mar. 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Mar. 12 at 3 p.m.; March 9 at 7:30 p.m. is a “Pay What You Can” dress rehearsal. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and AmeriCorps volunteers. The concert is at the Lewis Theatre on Court Street North in Lewisburg. For more information, call 304-645-3003.