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Youth Performing Arts School
The Youth Performing Arts School (YPAS) offers a comprehensive Dance Program for students in grades nine through twelve. Academic classes are taken at nearby duPont Manual High School. The Dance Department’s primary goals are career training and collegiate preparation. Consequently, students receive a strong technical foundation in ballet and modern dance. Dance Concert choreography, dance compositions, and dance ensemble touring performances are provided through the dance ensemble class.
The YPAS Dance Department has four full-time instructors and 50 to 70 dance majors. Five dance studios provide excellent facilities, and professional musicians accompany dance classes. The talents of students are showcased in a fully produced, annual dance concert; three informal dance showcases; and through the dance ensemble that travels throughout the state, performing for schools, businesses, and civic groups. The Dance Department not only is committed to the instruction of dance as an art form but also is committed to the belief that dance is a valid tool for the development of self-discipline and the desire for the pursuit of intellectual excellence, aesthetic awareness, and individual self-realization.
YPAS Dance majors have averaged a 95 percent college-entrance rate over the past ten years, with a majority of these dancers receiving scholarships. Graduates have been company members with the Louisville, New York City, Dayton, American Festival, Houston, Joffrey, Nutmeg, and Richmond ballet companies as well as with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Hubbard Street Dancers, and the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. Many have gone on to professionally tour in the companies of Swing, 42nd St., Aida, Fosse, and Nine.
Four levels of Dance are found at YPAS, and class placement is decided by the faculty and is determined by the student’s proficiency in both ballet and modern dance.
Course Offerings:
- Ballet/Pointe Levels I - IV
- Modern Dance Levels I - IV
- Dance Ensemble Levels II - IV
- Fundamentals of Dance
- Ballroom and Folk Dance
- Aerobics and Conditioning
- Tap Dance Levels I - III
- Intermediate and Advanced Dance Technique (Ballet, Modern, and Jazz)
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 duPont Manual High School |
