The School of Performing Arts is comprised of two divisions, dance and drama. Providing students a wide array of academic options that include college preparatory, honors, and concurrent college/high school classes. This program prepares students for post-secondary education and/or entry to careers in the performing arts. GCIT offers an extensive range of extracurricular opportunities such as athletics, clubs, competitions, and organizations that center on their career theme. At the time of application, students must select their area of concentration. The School of Performing Arts- Dance offers conservatory dance training with a full time artistic/teaching staff while offering students a comprehensive college preparatory high school experience. The Dance curriculum is heavily centered on the technical training of the student in ballet, modern and jazz. Performance is secondary and during the school year it is not unusual to see the dance faculty and students volunteering their time working after school and Saturday mornings setting choreography and rehearsing. In addition, the dance students have the opportunity to mentor under an extensive array of national figures in dance, music and visual arts through the guest artist program and interactive television. The curriculum is taught strictly adhering to the New Jersey Core Content Standards and includes ballet and modern 1,2,3 & 4; jazz and dance history 1, 2, & 3; rhythmic concepts 1; choreographic concepts and choreography 1& 2. Consistently infused into the four-year curriculum are aesthetics and critique, production values and performance, pointe, partnering, physical science and dance for the camera. Our goal is to develop well-rounded students who are capable of interacting successfully within a variety of disciplines in the professional dance world. Entrance into the program is highly competitive. - Students in the School of Performing Arts spend two hours of the school day concentrating on their career theme.
- The School of Performing Arts has an Advisory Committee made up of professionals from the Performing Arts Community including: choreographers, directors, producers, composers, musicians, visual artists, film makers, and professors.
- Graduates from the performing arts program have gone onto national theatre tours, regional theatre, the Rockettes, roles in major motion pictures, positions as lighting designers and costume designers, teach, establish new theatre companies of their own and service organizations such as AmeriCorps.
- Alumni and students have participated in professional performance companies that include: Lee Strasberg Institute, Philadanco, Robert Joffrey Ballet Company, San Diego Ballet Company, San Francisco ballet Company, Walnut Street Theatre, and many more.
- Awards and Recognition: Gloucester County Humanitarian Award, National Skills USA Gold Metal, numerous NJ State Thespian Awards, and Service Learning Grants.
- An innovative distance‐learning program allows our students to benefit from the skills, advice, and critiques of experts throughout this country, realtime in our classrooms, theatre, and studios.
- In 2002, the state initiated the New Jersey Governor’s Award for the Arts in Dance. Since its inception, four students from GCIT have received this prestigious recognition. One of our GCIT students has also been awarded the National Dance Educators Award.
- In addition to their teaching certification, our dance teachers have danced the lead with the Pennsylvania Ballet, and performed in A Chorus Line, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 42nd Street, and Anyone Can Whistle. The dance instructors are choreographers with critical acclaim. Our drama teachers have directed at professional theatres, performed on stage in New York and regional theatres around the country, and performed in television and film.
- Our graduates have gained acceptance in renowned colleges and universities. Some of them include the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Howard University, James Madison, Julliard, New York University, Rowan, Rutgers, and University of the Arts to name a few.
|
|
