Mercersburg’s pre-professional dancers came home with several awards after attending the recent Motion: Movement for Life dance competition/convention hosted by the Grier School in Tyrone, PA.

Dancers participated in 10 classes with nationally and internationally renowned guest teachers, attended a professional dance concert featuring Whirlwind Dance of Columbus, OH, and competed with several pieces from their current repertoire.

“We needed to get the dancers off campus for performance and training opportunities to expand their experience and knowledge of dance, but to also network and take classes with other dance students who they will most likely be auditioning with over the next few years for college programs, summer intensives, and college dance teams, if they wish to pursue any of those opportunities in their futures,” said Mercersburg Director of Dance Kelsy Rupp. 

“The pre-professional dancers gained an immense amount of training across multiple genres during the convention and met numerous professionals in the field. They also placed second and third overall in the competition. As their director, I also witnessed the dancers gain some perspective in regards to their current strengths and weaknesses and watched them draw inspiration and motivation from the classes and other students competing.”

Mercersburg Dance won the following awards:

• "Still Standing" choreographed by Tara Nalley
  Gold Ranking
  Third Overall Senior Line

• "It Has Left Us Lingering" choreographed by Kelsy Rupp
  Gold Ranking
  Second Overall Senior Line
  Outstanding Concept Award

• "Among the Living" choreographed by Caroline Hobbs ’26
  Silver Ranking

• "A View Between Villages" choreographed by Elizabeth Orders ’25
  Gold Ranking

• Ellie Sapp ’25: Full scholarship for the Motion Convention 2025

Mercersburg dancers will travel over spring vacation to the Regional High School Dance Festival in Norfolk, VA. "It Has Left Us Lingering" was adjudicated and selected to be performed at the festival. 

“For the 2024-2025 season, we are absolutely planning to keep a convention and competition experience on our calendar and hope to return to the Grier School for Motion in 2025,” Rupp said.