_{By Zach Collier}

Spend a few minutes with Full Circle Boys and one thing becomes immediately obvious: they’re far less interested in convincing people they’re “the next big thing” than they are in proving they’re always learning.

It’s an unusual kind of confidence. Rather than declaring themselves polished performers, the five-member group – Dossan Bell, Jagger Moon, James Herron, Ollie Hincy, and Sean Garrity – talk openly about growing pains, creative disagreements, exhausting rehearsals, and learning how to communicate like a family instead of a manufactured pop act.

That humility is exactly what makes them compelling. One look at their music video output and it’s easy to see that these guys are as polished as dance acts come. Watching them live is an insane experience – their dancing is electrifying, and every bit as good as their music video performances. They have no need to be humble – and yet they are.

I caught up with the group earlier this year when they stopped through Utah as part of Derek Hough’s Ovation Dance Tour. It’s a massive convention where elite dancers, choreographers, and performers gather for weekends across the country for competitions, classes, and live concerts. Full Circle Boys joined the tour at the beginning of 2026, stepping into the lineup in Phoenix after the holidays.

When I arrived at the Mountain America Expo Center, Sean came out to meet me himself. It was a brave move, given they had performed for convention-goers the night before and had caused quite the stir. On our way back to the green room, Sean – by far the group’s tallest member – was impossible to miss. We had to stop to take photos with fans for fifteen minutes. He was gracious, kind, and paid attention to every person who came his way.

“Sorry about that,” he laughed after conquering the long impromptu photo line. When we got to the green room, the guys were dressed casually in warmups and sweats. Given the lack of fashion, you could tell it was a non-performance day. But for Full Circle Boys, that didn’t mean it was an off day. On the contrary – they were dressed to work. Our interview took place right before they entered a dance studio to teach a round of master classes to aspiring dancers.

Ovation describes itself as being “led by today’s most sought-after dancers and choreographers.” When I read this verbatim, it was a description that initially made the boys laugh.

Rather than embracing the title, they hesitated. Jagger – whose onstage persona is one of swagger that flirts with intentional comedic arrogance – actually deflected. He’s incredibly down-to-earth in person.

“We’re honored to be included with all these artists,” he said. “But I don’t know if I would say that about us specifically, just because I think we’re still learning. We’re still growing. We’re still figuring ourselves out.”

“I think the goal is to be that elite artist,” Dossan added. “But I don’t think we’ll ever say we’re there.”

“There’s a different box the audience puts you in when you have a microphone in your hand,” Sean said. “Especially at these events, when everybody’s sharing their story through dance and then we do both – singing and dancing – it feels like we’re activating the crowd in a different way.”

The Full Circle Boys believe that having that added spectacle shouldn’t allow them to coast. They have to give their all to both the dance and vocal portions of their show in order to leave a lasting impact, which requires continual training and vigilance.

That mindset surfaces repeatedly throughout the conversation. Success is a direction. A constant pursuit that never ends.

Their audience that day happened to understand that journey better than most. Unlike a traditional crowd of concertgoers, an Ovation audience is filled almost entirely with dancers – people who instinctively recognize technical difficulty, timing, lifts, transitions, and musicality. The crowd reactions are very different.

“There’s a specific part in ‘You Should Be Mine’ where we catch Ollie,” Jagger explained. “A normal audience might think that’s cool. But dancers freak out because they know exactly how hard it is.” It’s a subtle difference, but one the band got to feel every night on tour.

Unlike a traditional concert tour, Ovation moves in bursts.

“We’ll do a weekend of shows,” Ollie explained. “And then depending on where the next city is, we might have a week off or sometimes almost a month.”

That rhythm creates an unusual lifestyle. They’re touring, but they’re also constantly returning home, writing music, filming videos, training, teaching, and preparing for the next run of performances. Everything everywhere all the time. Prioritizing their friendships and mental health help keep the band happy in the middle of the grind.

Growing up as competitive dancers prepared them for performing in ways they didn’t fully appreciate until forming a music group. Years of competing onstage, commanding attention, and learning to project personality translated naturally into becoming performers who sing as well as dance. The transition from dancer into confident vocal artist wasn’t nearly as dramatic as people might assume. The physical demands, however, certainly were a surprise.

Unlike many pop acts that lean heavily on prerecorded vocals, Full Circle Boys insist on singing every show.

“We’re trying to sing the whole time,” James explained. “We obviously have a backing track to help support us while we dance, but we’re giving 100%.”

So while backing tracks help reinforce the sound during choreography-heavy performances, live vocals remain a priority. In fact, the group jokes that they’re constantly asking sound engineers to turn their microphones up louder.

The effort doesn’t go unnoticed.

I caught Full Circle Boys again at their two night performance at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre in Orem this past weekend. You could tell portions of the audience were skeptical of them at first, but everyone was swept up by their uniform dancing and onstage charisma by the second song. People cheered when they did sections of their songs completely a cappella in 5-part harmony.

For performers who spend fifteen minutes sprinting across a stage while executing intricate choreography, those moments of recognition matter. Preparing for that kind of performance requires far more than rehearsing dance routines.

The group trains with performance coach Ben DeLuca at Kinetic Impact in San Diego, focusing on endurance, recovery, pacing, and the realities of sustaining a full-length show.

One of the biggest adjustments has been learning restraint. As dancers, they’re conditioned to give maximum energy from the opening count. As singers, that approach doesn’t work.

“You can’t throw everything out at the beginning or else you’re toast at the end,” Dossan explained. “You’ll have nothing left. You have to learn how to pace, how to pull back sometimes.”

Those lessons have transformed the way they approach live shows, and they’re already dreaming much bigger. Ask how long they hope future headline concerts will last and the answers come quickly.

Two hours. Maybe three. Even longer.

But they’re not interested in simply stacking hit songs together. Instead, they imagine theatrical productions with narrative arcs. They dream of concerts that completely immersive. That same commitment to storytelling has reshaped their songwriting.

When Provo Music Magazine last spoke with Full Circle Boys more than a year ago, much of the conversation centered on building momentum. Today, the focus has shifted inward.

“For the first year we were asking: what’s gonna blow up?” said Ollie. “Now it’s like, let’s step back, let’s figure out what we really want to say, what we really want to write about, and the kind of people we want to be. Finding that out has been really fun.”

That shift may be the biggest milestone in the band’s evolution. Their new album, YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS, reflects a creative process that’s become genuinely collaborative. From dance-heavy bangers like “BLEACHERS” that reflect innovations on their formative sound to 80s-inspired synthwave departures like “SOPHIE,” the Full Circle vision is really starting to take shape.

Working alongside producers Radio Johnson and songwriter Jack Newsome, the members have learned how to create songs together rather than simply contribute isolated ideas. The members have all learned how to write, and they’ve been given writing credit.

For many commercially assembled pop groups, performing someone else’s songs remains the norm. Full Circle Boys never wanted that to define them.

“When we first started the band back in 2021, I never thought we were gonna be able to release music with writing credit,” Sean laughed. “I have this notes app on my phone that says GOALS. One of them was, ‘Get writing credit on a song.’ Which sounds dumb. But that was so important to us. We feel so lucky to be able to write for ourselves.”

Authenticity has always been part of their identity. Full Circle Boys never began as a manufactured act in the traditional sense in the first place. There wasn’t a nationwide audition, there wasn’t a reality television competition.

The group’s management originally envisioned something much smaller before relationships within the dance community naturally connected one member to another.

In an era when many successful boy groups emerge from highly structured entertainment systems – especially in the K-pop world, which has essentially cornered the market on boy bands – Full Circle Boys have taken a far more organic path.

“We asked: is it possible to make a boy band out of, like, just guys down the street?” Sean laughed.

Turns out, it is. Without the infrastructure of a major label, the group has embraced experimentation rather than perfection. Music videos have become increasingly cinematic and story-driven, featuring collaborations with some of the dance world’s most respected choreographers, including Keone Madrid, Mari Madrid, Sean Lew, Kida the Great, and more.

For dancers who grew up admiring those names, sharing creative space with them still feels surreal. And yet here they are. The boys down the street.

To me, the incredible thing about the Utah music industry is everyone’s willingness to say they’re gonna do something – no matter how bold, no matter how crazy – and then actually do it. Who would have thought a handful of Utah dancers would try to take on South Korea for boy band dominance?

Nothing is too crazy. Nothing is impossible.

“It feels really good. It feels sustainable,” Ollie said.

YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS is out now on Spotify. Make sure to follow Full Circle Boys on Instagram and check out my favorite track from the album, “POLITE,” below.