Performing Arts

An ensemble of 5th graders rehearse “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen.

The Performing Arts Department celebrates its diversity and aims to instill in students the essential skills within the various areas of the performing arts.  The department is constantly challenged to develop different ways to instill confidence, creativity, responsibility, and knowledge to all our students in all performing art venues.  The programs presented in the area of drama, instrumental and vocal music reflect the department’s commitment to this challenge.  Many areas of the performing arts require a collaborative effort.  Students’ development of positive social skills and the means for solving problems in a creative manner creates an important vehicle for life-long learning.

The goals of the Performing Arts Department are designed to help students think in a creative manner and expand their horizons.  The importance of appreciating and understand the creative endeavors and achievements of other artists are taught, while constantly striving to develop students’ abilities to recognize and appreciate the arts as a historical reflection of humankind’s advancements, values and cultures.

Purpose and Objectives:

• To develop clearly defined skills through a sequence of essential elements necessary for excellence in performance.
• To development a student’s own expressive interpretation.  Students discover ways to interpret expression representation of a particular culture or historical period.
• To demonstrate knowledge of the basic principles of performance.  Students develop recognition, define and show their understanding of terms and symbols through their performance as they encounter them.
• To learn to speculate as to how a composer or play writer could generate a particular mood.  Through analysis of the work and comparison to their own speculations, students grow in their capacity to understand the nature of artistic expression and the tools necessary for generating artistic expression.