Upper School Performing Arts
Performing Arts at Beaver offers many disciplines of artistic and personal expression including dance, acting, design and technical theater, costume and fashion design, choral music and instrumental music. These disciplines introduce students to the basic vocabulary of the art forms and illustrate the constant dialogue between the arts and our society. Each member of the department strives to teach fundamental skills while also stressing the theories and concepts that accompany these skills.
Requirements
All students must complete twenty full arts credits within the visual and/or performing arts department by the end of their sophomore year. This requirement may be met by taking two full years of a given field of study or by sampling a variety of disciplines within the departmental electives. Many students opt to take art for more than two years.
Honors
Select Singers and advanced courses are offered at the honors level.
Performing Arts FAQs
Essentially the same as all other classes. Arts are equal to all other areas of study.
Yes, there are arts offerings in the curriculum and in the afternoon program. So you can create your own path!
Students who elect to take an instrumental ensemble are asked to provide their own instrument with the exception of larger instruments such as pianos and drum sets. The music faculty can connect you with rental companies and/or advise you on purchasing an instrument. Students on financial aid will receive assistance for instrument rental.
Students who want to learn a new instrument can take our Beginning Guitar/Piano course as part of the curriculum. Students interested in other instruments or who would prefer a one-on-one experience can take Private Music Lessons which are offered on campus for an additional fee. Students who are on financial aid have the same percentage of aid applied to private lessons.
The music faculty will reach out prior to the beginning of the school year to ensure proper ensemble placement by assessing where the student is in their music growth and independence on their instrument. Based on a small ensemble model (classes range from 4-12 students), the instrumental music classes are highly differentiated for each student, open to all instruments, and introduce students to a range of genres.
Acting Courses
Our Upper School Acting Program is personalized, taking every student from their own starting point and allowing them to explore, take risks, and grow as an individual and with the group.
Focused on the process of creating theater and acting rather than just the product, the goal of our acting classes is to create an inclusive community, and the spirit of the program is support and community as opposed to competitiveness. We reject the idea of “leading roles” or that students have one identity—athlete, artist, etc. Instead we encourage students to be well rounded. To that end, many of our students have a range of interests that help them to contribute to the ensemble.
While studying each play, students dig into the material by researching the time period, themes, playwrights, and other important aspects of dramaturgy that place the play in the historical and cultural context of the time it was written in. We then bridge that context with the current world we live in.
As their initial Theater Arts class, Upper School students take Foundations of Theater before choosing a track of Acting, Technical Theater & Design, or Costume & Fashion Design.
Technical Theater & Design Courses
In our Upper School Design Courses, students learn how to develop an artistic point of view—exploring how character and story are revealed through clothing and environment and the skills needed to bring their ideas to life.
In our Costume and Fashion Design Studio courses— taught in our state-of-the-art Costume Design Studio—students develop a basic understanding of the principles of costume design and costume technology. Using imagery, fabric, texture, shape, color, and line, they support and inform the theatrical storytelling process. In our Design and Tech Theater courses, students study the process of production and design of live performances. They develop and apply skills through various projects, including mainstage design opportunities, from set and lighting design to animated projections.
As their initial Theater Arts class, Upper School students take Foundations of Theater before choosing a track of Acting, Technical Theater & Design, or Costume & Fashion Design.
Music Courses
Instrumental Music
Some of the most interesting and exciting music being made today is that which breaks boundaries of genre and instrumentation. In our Upper School Instrumental Program, we believe students shouldn’t be pigeonholed into a particular kind of music based on their instrument.
We want our guitarists to grow their skills learning to read standard notation, and we want our violin students to know how to improvise in a jazz setting. To this end, ensembles cover music from a range of genres, and technique and theory are woven throughout the learning process. Comprised of 4 to 12 students, our ensembles are mixed instrumentation—woodwinds, brass, strings, and also rhythm section instruments like drums, piano, guitar, and bass. We custom arrange the music our ensembles play—creating content that targets growth areas for particular student.
Choral Music
From classical to Beyoncé, students in the Upper School Choral Program learn music from a variety of cultures and eras. We spend time exploring the background of songs in order to understand and capture the essence of the artists’ intention and to perform them as authentically as possible.
The choral music program at Beaver is open to any student who is interested in singing—no experience in solo or choral singing is required. Freshmen who are interested in vocal music at Beaver start with Foundations of A Cappella, a class where ninth graders work together to learn the basics of healthy singing, music theory, and musicianship through the pop a cappella idiom. For those who are interested in taking their vocal study further, they can take B-Side A Cappella or audition for Select Singers—an auditioned Honors ensemble that studies advanced repertoire in a variety of genres. This ensemble is open to students in grades 10 to 12.
Dance Courses
In our Dance Program students begin to develop their own artistic voice and style as well as a greater sense of body awareness, self-confidence, and self-discipline. The dance program welcomes all students, from the novice to the advanced dancer, who is interested in exploring dance through a variety of styles including (but not limited to) Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, and Hip Hop. Our Upper School Foundations of Choreography course is an in-depth study of movement and choreographic tools. Students hone their dance skills, create their own pieces, and, through the exploration of choreographers, gain an understanding of how different artists across genres have shaped the art form.
Through solo and group projects, students will have the opportunity to put into practice some of these elements of choreography.
Examples from the Performing Arts classroom
