Dance in Dallas.

Dallas's Booker T. High School

Even the initials for Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts are formidable. Then add the Dance Department.

In 1976, a former all-African-American high school in Dallas was transformed into the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Today BTWHSPVA stands as one of Texas's premier arts magnet schools, noted for its blend of arts and academics and its culturally diverse faculty and student body.

The school is located in the Dallas Arts District, near the heart of the city, and it enrolls approximately 700 students in grades nine through twelve from the metropolitan area.

"It's a diverse culture with kids from different backgrounds and interests," explains Amber Strauser, a senior dance student. "The students here are really into their art and are incredibly focused. The atmosphere is so positive. The teachers really encourage you to do your best."

BTWHSPVA's arts curricula are housed in four departments: dance, music, theater, and visual arts. All students participate in a mandatory multidisciplinary creative arts course their first year, and they are encouraged to take a heavy load of academic courses along with their required arts classes.

For the 120 dance students, this means three technique classes and five academic courses each semester. Ballet and modern dance are the core techniques, with additional classes offered in jazz, folk dance, ethnic styles, tap, composition, technical production, dance history, and repertory.

"I love how I can work with various teachers," says Damien Johnson, a junior. "The faculty has so much to give and are really dedicated, plus we have a lot of master classes."

Besides its twelve faculty members, the dance program hires ten to fifteen guest artists and master teachers each year.

"We're a high school, but we rival many colleges in the number of guest artists we bring to our students," says Rosann McLaughlin Cox, dance coordinator. "Our kids are exposed to different styles and approaches to ballet and modern techniques. It makes them versatile."

During the past fifteen years, the roster of guest artists has included Donald McKayle, Arthur Mitchell, Nina Popova, Erik Bruhn, Gus Giordano, Bill Evans, and Bella Lewitzky. Professional troupes such as the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and Lar Lubovitch Dance Company have offered master classes and demonstrations.

"I think of the school as a conservatory with academics. The training here is very professional," explains award-winning senior Lindsay Arriada. "You don't have to deal with a lot of petty things and behavior. The school prepares you for the real world.

"The school is unique because of its diversity: ethnicity, ages, backgrounds, training. We get all types of kids here, and we learn how to do all forms of dance. Although ballet and modern are the basics, no one focuses on just one style," Arriada adds.

Current student body statistics show a population of 40 percent Anglo, 31 percent African-American, 26 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent American Indian or Asian.

Auditions for admission are held each February and April; they include an essay written onsite, interviews with faculty, and a dance class. Applicants need passing grades, but talent is the leading criterion for admission.

The school is free to students living in the Dallas Independent School District. Out-of-district students are admitted if space is available, but they must pay tuition of $1350 per year. There is always a long waiting list of out-of-district students.

Once accepted, students in the dance department must maintain passing grades and show consistent technical progress. Students and their parents sign a performance contract that outlines regulations on attendance and proper behavior. Rules are strictly enforced.

"The performance opportunities are really incredible," Johnson says. "Lots of guest choreographers and the different performance ensembles offer a variety of rep."

The department has four major dance concerts each year, and students may also perform with the ballet folklorico ensemble LunaSol, the African American Ensemble, and the Young Audiences Ensemble, which provides lecture demonstrations in area schools. For the 1998-99 school year, students will give more than forty performances.

Although 85 percent of the school's graduates continue their studies at colleges and universities, many receive job offers or scholarships from dance and theater companies. Professional companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Royal Swedish Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Tharp! include BTWHSPVA alumni in their ranks, as do the casts of such Broadway productions as Chicago and Phantom of the Opera.

Each November the school holds its Senior Showcase, where students perform for college recruiters. Thirty colleges and conservatories send representatives who scout for potential scholarship recipients. The average graduating class numbers 150 students; the college scholarships offered to them total approximately $2.5 million.

"You can get a lot of college scholarship money through the Senior Showcase," says Arriada, "and there are opportunities to move into the professional world and to network through the guest artists who come here."

Many conservatories and professional schools hold regional auditions at BTWHSPVA, and students audition there for admission and scholarships to such places as the Joffrey Ballet, the Juilliard School, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center.

"Our students are focused--almost to a fault," comments dance faculty member Lily Cabatu Weiss. "We have them physically engaged all the time, so we try to add a bit of levity to their days. It's such a huge commitment at their age that we use humor to help them."

Students also excel academically: many take honors and advanced placement programs. Six dance students have been named Presidential Scholars since 1980, and more than twenty have been finalists. Presidential Scholars are selected by the Arts Recognition and Talent Search of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

BTWHSPVA is the only arts magnet school to receive the nation's Blue Ribbon School Award; it has also received the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation Award for Exemplary Arts Education. It is the first high school to be placed on the artists' roster for the Young Audiences program in public schools.

The school has participated in the National High School Dance Festival, the Kennedy Center's Imagination Celebration, and the New South Wales Regional Dance Festival in Sydney, Australia.

All of the dance faculty are still active as performers and choreographers, and many have also been recognized nationally. Cox was named the Distinguished Teacher in the Arts by the NFAA in 1991. Several other teachers have received the Distinguished Teacher in the Arts award from the White House Commission for Presidential Scholars on more than one occasion, including Weiss, who has received it three times. Four teachers have been named state Dance Educator of the Year by the Dance Division of Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance.

"I taught college before, but did not experience the same intellectual and physical challenges that l have with these kids," says Cox. "You watch them grow and graduate. It's a real sense of accomplishment."

For more information on the BTWHSPVA dance department contact Dr. Rosann Cox, Dance Coordinator, Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, 2501 Flora St., Dallas, TX 75201; [phone].

Sondra Lomax is a faculty member at University of Texas, Austin.