Life Skills Through Arts: FLHS's Academy of Performing Arts

Fort Lee High School's Academy of Performing Arts program (APA) will proudly say goodbye to its second graduating class this year. The program, now three years old, has grown by dozens of students annually. The program's director Shelly Fox said that the headcount for next year's incoming freshman was over 100.

The APA is divided into three "schools:" The School of Acting, School of Dance, and School of Music. Students from their respective schools will often crossover and perform or collaborate with the other schools. Skill-sets traverse the gap; many actors can sing, or dance, or dancers will act, or play an instrument.

"They learn how to do everything," Fox said. "So they're a triple threat."

The APA's official mission states that it is a "small school" community in which "risk taking, imagination, commitment, and dedication are encouraged and rewarded." The program is intended to help students mature into dedicated, well-rounded adults--even if they're not altogether intent on going into the arts post high school.

Students hold "gatherings" a few times a year with APA Instructors and their parents. Students speak to parents about what they are working on and learning, as well as perform with each other.

Fox says the program doesn't support one school over the other. The interest, participation and support of Acting, Dance and Music is spread evenly.

"We push to create informed, educated citizens who can contribute to society," she said.

Fox said students in the APA can benefit in all other areas of their life. What they learn in their classes transfers to real-life scenarios:

• how to speak in front of people
• how to learn (brain based and multiple intelligences)
• how to make connections between types of knowledge
• how to interview
• workplace readiness skills
• how to critically read, write, and speak
• how to take risks and creative innovative ideas and compositions
• how to work collaboratively

The application process begins before freshman year. Recruiting begins in middle school. Students must audition for their chosen school as well as interview with instructors from the APA.

Fox said that those looking to enter the the School of Music must meet higher expectations.

“For the music school it’s at a much higher level. They have to be musical literate and they have to have the technical facility to play their instrument,” she said.

Acting and Dance students start at a base level, but can be placed into higher level classes if they show a proficiency as a result of pre-high school training and tutelage. 

Students looking to enter the School of Acting audition with a prepared monologue along with an interview. Jodi Etra, the instructor of Acting and Theatre History, assesses their willingness to take risks and really open up on stage.

Dance students need not be experts; they too audition along with an interview.

“What Mrs. Cutler looks for is awareness of body, being able to pick up different moves,” Fox said.

The purpose of the auditions and interviews is to gauge the level of interest, devotion and commitment of each student. The APA requires a significant amount of dedication from each student. The program requires students to stay after school.

Students do not need a minimum GPA to enter the program, nor do they need to maintain a certain GPA. They do, however, need to publicly set realistic goals among their peers and eventually meet them. If students do poorly and cannot recover in a school year, they are asked to leave. Fox said that she has rarely seen this happen, and that when the few students who did leave the program made the decision, it was “fairly mutual.”

“We give them a lot of support,” Fox said. “We have a mentoring program with the teachers.”

Seniors who graduate from the APA receive a separate diploma. This year they are working on a Senior Project for Mastery, which will essentially be a graduation program run by the students who are in it.

“They have to speak publicly on what they learned; they have to perform,” Fox said.

The instructors for the APA are:

•  Mrs. Shelly Fox, Director
• Ms. Maris Stephenson, Chamber Ensemble, Theory and History
• Ms. Claudia Cutler, Dance, Choreography and History
• Ms. Jodi Etra, Acting and Theatre History
• Mr. Joseph Picone, Vocal Instructor and Piano Coach
• Mr. Harry Welte, Instrumental Music

Fox feels the arts program is especially important in creating a sense of community among creative individuals who don’t fall into specific adolescent stereotypes.

“Kids in the arts – they’re unique, they’re different. And a lot of times, in different school systems that don’t have this kind of structure, they kind of get lost in the shuffle and feel ‘there’s something wrong with me because I’m not like everybody else,’” Fox said. “This way they’re with many other kids that have the same interest and focuses. They go ‘oh, there are other people that do what I do.’”