Early education in the performing arts is fundamental and foundational. It is our goal to provide a dynamic, rewarding, supportive and educational environment for our students.
It may be said that in our culture, performing arts education is thought of as a nice thing to provide, an appealing compliment to the traditional curricula of established institutional learning. We view it quite differently; rather than a footnote to the education of a young person, the performing arts is the most compelling and complete form of comprehensive youth development.
The performing arts provides the universal language through which we share so many intangible and invaluable qualities, behaviors and culture. It is now well recognized that young students of movement and music are most often better students in science and mathematics later in their academic careers. It is also demonstrated that the things we do for our children away from school are the single most important contributor to improved aptitude scores as they aspire to centers of higher learning.
In the same way that participation in sports programs is first about acquiring skill, leadership and discipline, the goal of our program is not first to point a child towards a career in the arts, but to build a foundation of ability and confidence essential to any career.
The student of the arts is simultaneously schooled in a host of attributes, personal and academic, through a mechanism that is unique in its focus and effect. Personal development emphasizing self efficacy, confidence, grace and poise, physicality, socialization, public address, individual and group goal dynamics and specialized skills and language are all elemental to their learning.
So rather than the arbitrary measure of success that pervades the current institutional school environment, with its embedded emphasis on test results, education in the arts is simultaneously holistic and universal. The student is thereby strengthened and a strong foundation is built.