Arts at Collegiate

ARTS

The arts offer a place to express oneself, and to have the opportunity to be part of a community that is supportive at the highest level. From the students to faculty to the parent community, there is not a better place than Collegiate to begin the journey of discovering one’s passion.”

— MIKE BOYD, DIRECTOR OF THE ARTS

Dancing with a Community

Collegiate’s dance program has provided dancers with a supportive, enthusiastic community for more than 20 years.

Collegiate School’s dance program, now in its 21st year, began with the goal of providing a creative outlet for students. The program, Stacy Dudley (formerly Stacy Pfeifer) envisioned, would establish a space where dancers could take the whirlwind of life and transform it into balance, symmetry, motion, shape — in a word: art. In the winter of 2001, when Mrs. Dudley graduated from James Madison University, she began writing to former Head of School Keith Evans, outlining the particular benefits students would receive if the School began a dance program. She knew that Collegiate had a beautiful dance studio but lacked a program that would put it to good use. She wanted to change that. “My pitch was that dance is a great outlet for students creatively,” explains Mrs. Dudley, Collegiate’s Dance Coordinator. “Secondly, I said that dance helps students perform better in their academics. And finally, I mentioned that dance, because it improves agility and flexibility, strengthens students athletically.” She began teaching at Collegiate that spring, giving instructional dance lessons to students looking to fulfill a fitness credit in the Middle School. Now, more than two decades later, Collegiate’s dance program has grown to accommodate students in all three divisions.

“Coming to Collegiate, I knew that there were dancers here that were looking for a place to pursue their passion,” Mrs. Dudley says. “I wanted to make sure there was a space for those students. It has always been my goal for students to come to Collegiate’s dance studio and to be surrounded by other dancers that are supportive, enthusiastic and willing to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. That has always been my vision since this program began, back in 2001, and to see that vision come to life is so terrific for the students.” The Middle School dance studio, located on the second floor of the Seal Athletic Center, is flush with sunlight, which splashes through long horizontal windows and sweeps across the hardwood dance floor. The 8th Grade dance company is moving through choreography to Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I Found You.” The movements are diligent, athletic, strong, and Mrs. Dudley counts out each step gingerly. When one dancer falters or misses a movement, another dancer encourages them to try again, their voice warm with support and kindness. “If one of us makes a mistake, you’ll never hear anyone laugh or make fun of you,” says Addison Young ’27, a dancer in the 8th Grade company. “Instead, everyone is supportive. We’re all here for the same reason. We’re all helping one another, and we are all there for each other. We are one big community here. In this space, in this dance studio, I’ve found a place where I can just get away. I can be creative and productive at the same time, and I can just let my head relax and really be myself.” In the dance studio, students are able to explore avenues of creativity. Each dance is an opportunity for expression. “In dance, there’s no right answer for how to perform a movement,” Mary Ellen Chapman ’27 says. “You can always make a dance movement your own, which challenges you to articulate your emotions and think in unique ways. Dance is my outlet, creatively, but it has also helped shape me as an athlete and as a student.” Before each dance concert, the students in the Middle and Upper School dance companies will perform short previews of their pieces in assemblies. In Oates Theater, where the assemblies are held, the students’ hard work is on full display. For the dance students, who are received with fervent applause from their peers, it’s a validating experience. The culminating performance, perfected in the studio among a cohort of supportive peers, is a demonstration of creativity, emotion and skill. “Those performances give the students a place where they can shine,” Mrs. Dudley says. “It is an opportunity for a dancer to say, ‘This is what I’ve put my heart into, this is a part of who I am.’ It’s an empowering experience for a student to have.”

THE SENSATION OF SONG

A musical offers a captivating exercise of the eye, ear, mind and soul. Delivering spectacular sound and story, the Upper School theater program presented Little Shop of Horrors, one of the longest-running Off-Broadway shows, this fall. A charming comedy, Collegiate’s presentation of Little Shop of Horrors was the School’s first musical production in three years, satisfying the community’s need for songs of musical hilarity.

Emerging as Artists

Collegiate School’s Oates Emerging Artist grant gives students the opportunity to explore their artistic talents.

The act of creation takes time, diligence and space. And for young artists, as they begin to understand the virtues of their talents, having room to explore is essential.

For three Collegiate School Seniors, who were selected to receive funding from the Oates Emerging Artist grant to attend a summer art-intensive course of their choice, finding that creative space proved to be beneficial to their development as both artists and students. Their talents as artists progressed at Collegiate but, when their summer courses began, Cate Riley ’23, Jacob Hunt ’23 and Eva Lareau ’23 began creating in earnest.

Cate elected to travel to New York to study film at the School of Creative and Performing Arts (SOCAPA), one of the premier visual and performing arts summer camps for young artists. For three weeks, the students in attendance are given the rigorous assignment of creating one film a week. “The camp was challenging,” she says, “but having an itinerary and having a schedule that encourages you to make films helped broaden my horizons and my skill set.”

In the first two movies she made, creative restrictions were imposed, pushing her to find new modes of storytelling. “Our first film was based on the Lumière brothers, and it could only be one minute long using one continuous shot,” she explains. “And our second film, The Porter, implemented cuts but had to tell a simple story. Only in our third film were we able to combine everything we knew about filmmaking.”

Jacob, who used the grant to enroll in a five-day program at the New York Film Academy, began making movies of his own when he found his mom’s old camcorder tucked away in storage during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I had always loved movies, but when I started making my own I realized my interest went deeper than just watching them,” he says. “I became interested in the production of movies and how a story is told.”

When he learned about the Oates Emerging Artist grant, he jumped at the opportunity to continue pursuing his interest. During his time at the New York Film Academy, his passion for filmmaking, once a nebulous hobby, materialized into a tangible career aspiration. “I’ve really started to believe that I can be in this industry in the future,” he says. “My summer program definitely solidified my career in filmmaking.”

Both Jacob and Cate, in their respective programs, learned the ins and outs of the movie-production process. Working on small production teams, they were given equipment such as boom mics and lens filters

Art has made me a more dedicated student, because what it has taught me is that the only way to do well at something is to be passionate about it and really care.”

previously not at their disposal. An understanding of the intricacies of movies blossomed. “The experience of having different roles on a set — like operating the microphones and working as the director — were really valuable to me,” Cate recalls. “Learning about cuts, how you compose your shot and just how important those decisions are in your film helped improve my storytelling.”

When Eva enrolled in VCU’s 2-D Portfolio Development camp this summer, she found a cohort of young artists with passions similar to hers. “The camp I pursued was really fantastic for connections,” she says. “I was able to talk to other artists about their art and their experiences in the arts. It’s really inspiring just to be surrounded by a community of artists.”

Eva’s camp, which focused on the fundamental principles and concepts of drawing and painting through studio instruction and lectures, helped her both refine and expand her techniques as a painter. She was challenged to paint a new piece every day, and in the process those skills made her a better student. “In all the art classes I’ve taken at Collegiate, I’ve known that art makes me a better thinker, mainly because it encourages you to create things and look at things from different angles,” Eva says. “The camp I took at VCU confirmed that for me.”

Artistic skill is a key that gives the artist a unique way of seeing the world, and Collegiate’s Oates Emerging Artist grant is intended to encourage that way of seeing, better preparing them for the future. “Art has made me a more dedicated student, because what it has taught me is that the only way to do well at something is to be passionate about it and really care,” Eva says. “Whether I pursue art or use my skills as an artist in another field, I know that I’ll be prepared.”

JACOB HUNT

CATE RILEY

EVA LAREAU