For Center Grove Middle School Central student Henry Kirk, the performing arts are his passion. Henry first walked into dance class at the age of 3, when his younger sister, Emma, was hesitant to go into class, and he hasn’t stopped dancing and performing since that day.
“I got into musical theater through dance and I decided, ‘Why not do acting?’” says Henry. “My mom signed me up for a theater camp and I fell in love with it. I went to New York and I was like, ‘I wanna do this.’”
Chelsea Schneider, Henry’s mom, says Henry is just a normal 13-year-old kid who is an old soul, and loves portraying different characters and performing. Henry started working with New York City-based Broadway Kids Auditions, got a vocal coach and a theatrical agent, and auditioned for the role of Gavroche in the North American tour of Les Miserables, which took him to stages across the country.
“His experience in competitive dance definitely provided an early opportunity to gain confidence in his performance and character-development skills,” says Schneider.
In attendance at one of his Broadway Across America shows sat Josh Torres, director of percussion at Center Grove High School. He was blown away by Henry’s performance and didn’t know at the time that their paths would soon cross back home in Center Grove.
After finishing the tour, Henry was homeschooled for a while and then expressed interest in transferring to Center Grove Middle School Central (CGMSC) this past winter.
“Apparently his dad and I weren’t a cool enough lunch table, and he wanted to get back to a regular school,” says Schneider. “We were nervous and excited for Henry to attend in-person middle school for the first time.”
Schneider says she and her husband, Joey, were surprised how simple the transfer process was for Henry, and through a dance connection, he was asked to be part of the Indoor Percussion program’s performance at the high school along with longtime friend, Hayden Vondielingen, an eighth-grader at Center Grove Middle School North.
The youngest members of the program will help in the storytelling of this year’s Center Grove Indoor Percussion (CGIP) show, which includes nearly 60 student participants.
“This year’s show is called Faded Heroes,” says Torres. “What we wanted to do with Faded Heroes was kind of set the story around a little boy who is basically going through life as a normal little boy, kind of getting bullied, made to feel a little bit inferior.”
In Faded Heroes, Henry holds a comic book at the beginning, reading about superheroes. Throughout the performance he opens his shirt to reveal he has a superhero inside of him.
“This year’s show is really trying to teach the students about empowerment and that they are kind of the change they want to see in the world,” says Torres. “ We’ve really crafted a place that students can come to and just feel at home and feel excited about.”
“It definitely turned a larger school into a close-knit community,” says Schneider, who adds that Henry has also become involved in his middle school choir program and school musical. “CGMSC is the biggest school he’s ever attended, but we’ve discovered it’s the perfect place for him. We look forward to his involvement in arts programs in middle school and high school.”
CGIP traveled to the WGI World Championships in Dayton, Ohio, this April. For Henry, performing in front of a packed audience is nothing new, but the opportunity to represent his hometown and school is something special.
“I feel very honored to be able to represent Center Grove,” says Henry. “It’s a great team of people – a lot of great people. I made a lot of friends. It’s been really great.”
Torres says the CGIP team sees itself as a family.
“The more you invest in the group, the more you practice, the harder you work, the more you are deeply passionate about it,” says Torres. “You just watch them perform and you can see that passion. For me it’s really awesome because I’ve taught some of these students since they were in sixth grade, so I’ve got to watch them grow as humans and as performers into these 18-year-old superstars.”
Center Grove is known for championship athletics, impressive facilities, high academic standards and world-class arts programming. It’s where students have an opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves.
“It is just really neat to watch them find their self-confidence and find their voice in this,” says Torres. “And it’s why we always tell students, ‘You don’t have to do marching band, you don’t have to do indoor percussion, but do something. Find something.’ Center Grove is this amazing place that has all kinds of things that you can be a part of, but being part of something is what really helps connect you to the community.”
