Former resident performs in touring musical production

BY NORMA B. DENNIS |ndworddesign@gmail.com

From performing the role of Clara in High Point Ballet’s version of the Nutcracker at age 10, to touring in Hits! The Musical at age 19, Madeline Underwood has watched her dream of a dance career steadily unfold.

“Going into the audition for Hits! I realized it would be an opportunity to show my skill set and could serve as a stepping stone for more,” Underwood said. “I was excited to go and see what would happen.”

Hits! The Musical is a journey of 100 popular pop, rock and Broadway hits from the 1960s to present day. The singing and dancing is spotlighted by spectacular costume changes, lighting and sound that elevate the show to a first-class production.

Unique to a show of this quality is the ages of the 29-member cast, which range from 10-22. Thousands of young people in 31 cities nationwide auditioned. Underwood was one of the 10 featured dancers, along with 19 singers, chosen to participate.

Underwood’s love of dance began after seeing a performance of the Nutcracker when she was just 3 years old. Her parents Matt and Stephanie agreed she could take lessons and her interest in the art of dancing continued to grow. By the time she performed as Clara, Underwood had already played several other parts in the well-know production.

As a member of the Starz Elite Dance Center in High Point, she took many styles of dance but her favorites are jazz, contemporary and hip-hop. She participated in a variety of dance competitions, winning numerous regional and national awards.

After completing Jamestown Middle School, Underwood chose to attend high school at Penn-Gri n School of the Arts in High Point. She moved to Brea, Calif., her senior year to train at Brea Space, a school of dance under the direction of Krista Miller. This launch training program provides approximately 20 hours a week of training in all dance styles, plus preparation for auditions, journaling classes and on-camera work.

“(Leaving my family behind in Jamestown) was scary at first,” Underwood admits. “I did not know anyone, but was lucky to join a program of dancers who wanted the same thing I did.

“I had always liked dance, but once I turned 15 I started to realize it was something I really wanted to do. Whenever I saw movies with dancing I would research the choreographers.” movies with dancing I would research the

Underwood finished her senior year at Penn-Gri n online and returned home to participate at her high school graduation with her classmates.

She is currently taking online classes at Guilford Technical Community College and hopes to eventually get a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Taking classes online makes it easier for her to continue her education since she can fit her classes into the rehearsal schedule for the upcoming production.

“Getting to be part of has taught me a lot about being in a professional show and given me the opportunity to travel,” Underwood said. “It is my first major live production. The thought of going from city to city and always being on stage is exciting.”

Underwood finished her senior year at Penn-Gri n online and returned home to eventually get a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Taking classes online makes it easier for her to continue her education since she can fit Hits! being in a professional show and given me the opportunity to travel,” Underwood said. “It is my first major live producrehearsed six days a week in St. Petersburg, Fla. Participants their

During the summer, the cast rehearsed six days a week in St. Petersburg, Fla. Participants learned their parts separately before putting the show all together. The group will meet back in Florida for final rehearsals before the tour begins with shows in Asheville on Feb. 23 and Feb. 25.

“My favorite number is ‘Living La Vida Loca,’” Underwood said. “It includes all 10 dancers and some of the singers. It is so high energy and so much fun.”

As exciting as participating in Hits! The Musical is for Underwood, she wants even more for the future.

“My hope was for dance to take me everywhere,” she said. “This show does that. My goal now is to get steady work and perform around the country. I would like to perform in films and television also.”

In addition to the shows in Asheville, the 50-plus city tour of Hits! The Musical will also appear in Durham March 23 and in Charlotte March 24. For tickets and other tour dates go to www.thehitstour.com. Information about the show can also be found on social media @hitsthemusical. !

The Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro announces the exhibition To Serve the People: Prints from Mexico’s Taller de Gráfica Popular, January 21–May 13, 2023.

“In order to serve the people, art must reflect the social reality of the times.“

In 1937, this belief inspired the foundation of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (the People’s Print Workshop) in Mexico City. Committed to the progressive idealism of the Mexican Revolution, artists worked together to create prints, posters, flyers, and other works on paper aimed at educating the widest possible audience about the social issues of their day. Fundamental to their artistic production was a democratic group process of collective critiques and negotiated decision-making.

That commitment to shared learning and leadership has likewise fueled the production of this exhibition. In fall 2022, students in two UNC Greensboro art history courses came together to study the history and output of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, as well as collaboratively curate this exhibition. The layout of artworks in the galleries, the texts presented alongside them, and a supporting timeline of Mexican history were all generated by the students through a process of individual readings and presentations, group discussions and critiques, multiple small-group working sessions, and many rounds of peer editing.

At the heart of the students’ work is an incredible collection of over one hundred TGP prints brought together by Robert Healy, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Policy at Duke University, and recently gifted to the Weatherspoon by him and his wife, Kay Edgar. This transformative gift to the museum’s collection provides rich material for teaching not only in art history but also across such disciplines as economics, geography, history, and sociology, to name just a few.

Juliette Bianco, the Anne and Ben Cone Memorial Endowed Director of the Weatherspoon Art Museum said that this transformational gift “uplifts the museum’s commitment to our students, faculty, and local and regional communities by providing access to works of art that are consequential to the human experience. We are grateful to Healy and Edgar for sharing our vision that an art museum on a university campus within a community can enable deeper and richer dialogue about ideas and issues that matter, and welcome community groups and broader collaborations with the Taller de Gráfica Popular and with the Weatherspoon collection as a whole.”

To further the educational collaboration, this spring, an interdisciplinary faculty working group will gather to think about the di erent ways in which this collection of prints can support learning in their courses. The group includes scholars of anthropology, art, art history, education, history, music, peace and conflict studies, and Spanish. Together with the Weatherspoon curatorial team, they will share insights and resources as they develop lesson plans for teaching with these artworks in the future. This exciting project is organized by HNAC, UNCG’s Humanities Network and Consortium, and made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the Social Science Research Council.

Organized by the students of ARH490 and Dr. Emily Stamey, curator and head of exhibitions, with the students of ARH219 and Dr. Nicole Scalissi, assistant professor of art history. !

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