Following a performance in Colorado, a young girl ran up to Kylie Jorgensen and wrapped her in a hug. She told the BYU-Idaho dance major, from Gilbert, Arizona, that she dreamed of becoming a dance teacher herself someday.
"It gave me so much motivation and so much joy in that moment to keep going and to keep striving to reach my goals," Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen was one of 31 members of BYU-Idaho's Dance Alliance, a student dance performance company, that spent 10 days touring Colorado this summer with their production, Limitless.
Along the way, the dancers taught ballroom and contemporary workshops at local studios, performed at senior care centers, trained at a professional dance studio, and discovered that the tour transformed them as much as it inspired the audiences who watched.
The tour included five public performances in Colorado Springs, Loveland, Grand Junction, Aurora, and Parker. Throughout the production, dancers performed multiple genres, giving many of them opportunities to move well beyond their primary styles.
"I've grown my versatility a lot on this tour," said Hannah Paxton, an interdisciplinary studies major from Centerville, Utah. "I'm not just focusing on my main background, which is ballroom. I'm in tons of different numbers. I'm in world numbers where we're doing dances from different cultures, and also a lot of hip-hop and other fast, amazing numbers."
Maikolo Latapu, a dance major from Elk Grove, California, who just graduated this July, said the tour challenged dancers to become well-rounded performers.
"I have learned every style of dance," Latapu said. "I've learned ballroom. I've learned tap. I've learned hip-hop. The biggest way that Dance Alliance has contributed to me as a dancer is getting experience in all the areas of dance."
Dance major Kylie Robison of Queen Creek, Arizona, said audiences often don't realize the time it takes to prepare the show.
“We practiced for three hours Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then four hours on Saturday, starting in winter semester, all through spring semester,” Robison said.
Yet the growth students experienced extended far beyond dance technique.
Every performance on tour took place in a different venue, requiring dancers to adapt quickly to new stages, lighting, and performance spaces.
“Every day we're in a different theater or venue," said Frida Mojica, a biology major from Mexico City, Mexico. "It's been super helpful to know how to adapt.”
For Paxton, though, the greatest lessons came from the people surrounding her.
"This tour has helped me develop to be a disciple of Jesus Christ by getting to spend time with the most Christ-like people I could ever be around," she said. "Going to a school such as BYU-Idaho, I'm surrounded by the Savior."
The show's title, Limitless, became more than a performance theme. It became a personal reminder of each student's divine identity.
"With this show, I've been able to show that I am limitless in all the things that I can do with my dancing and just in my life," Paxton said.
That message also resonated deeply with Jorgensen, who hopes audiences left the show with much more than an appreciation for dance.
"Because He's divine, His potential is limitless, and so is ours because of that," Jorgensen said. "I love being able to help people feel that they matter. They matter, and they are limitless in their potential."
Students said combining artistic excellence with a Christ-centered message is what makes BYU-Idaho's performing groups unique.
"We have this gospel-centered, Christ-centered show, and we're using our dancing and our talents to portray those spiritual messages to others," Robinson said.
Lauren McFadden, a dance major from Rexburg, Idaho, said the experience strengthened her testimony that artistic gifts can become instruments for sharing faith.
"What we are doing, it matters," McFadden said. "We can really do a lot with our testimony through dance."
For Mojica, each performance became a reminder of the Savior's love.
"Every time I'm on stage, I can feel the love of everyone," she said. "It's just a reminder of how Jesus loves us."
As the final curtain closed and the company returned to Rexburg, students carried home more than memories of performances across Colorado. They returned with strengthened testimonies, expanded artistic abilities, and a deeper understanding that through Jesus Christ, their potential, reflected in the message of Limitless, extends far beyond the stage.