The Dance Studio Podcast
The Dance Studio Podcast
Governor's School for the Arts with Deborah Thorpe
Join Sally as she talk with Deborah Thorpe, Assistant Director of the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk, VA.
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Welcome to the second season of the Dance Studio podcast. This podcast is for dancers, teachers, dance moms and especially dance studio owners. In the first season, we covered topics like scoliosis, eating disorders and point shoe readiness, along with several episodes on different dance career paths and awesome dance programs for you and your dance students. In the second season, you can count on hearing from Tony Award winners, american Ballet Theater teachers, competition judges and so much more. The Dance Studio podcast fans are loving the information this podcast provides. Take it from season one guest, jennifer Miletto.
Speaker 2:My name is Jen Miletto and I am a former student of Sally's, now dancing professionally at Disney. As well as teaching dance as a college professor, Sally has been my mentor through my entire dance career. What I love about her and her podcast is that she is not only willing to be completely open about everything that she has learned in her career, but she is also so curious about what others have learned in their unique experience, and she wants to share all of it with her listeners. There is a reason why I have stuck with Sally all of these years she is committed to advocating for the success of the dance community. If you are a studio owner, teacher, dancer or aspiring to be any of those things, do not miss this podcast.
Speaker 1:Welcome Dance Studio owners. I am here today with the Assistant Director of the Governor's School for the Arts in Virginia, Deborah Thorpe. Welcome, Deborah.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:I am so happy to be here. I'm here, actually, at the governor's school, which I didn't even realize existed. I came here to ask you about the governor's school that I thought was in the summer. I knew about a five-week-long program in the summer for dancers, but you just blew my mind with this tour of the school. I'm so happy that you have me here and that you showed me around and opened my eyes to what exists here in Virginia for the governor's school. Would you just mind starting off by telling me about you and your path to becoming the Assistant Director at the governor's school here?
Speaker 1:Happy to so the Governor's School for the.
Speaker 3:Arts is in its 36th year and I was one of the founders and creators of the school, along with a team of people. I actually was the chair of the dance department from 1987 to 2011 and then became the Assistant Director and actually I'm also the Foundation Director, starting in 2011. Until now, I was teaching at Old Dominion University, which is here in Norfolk, virginia, when a steering committee was put together to create this school and I was asked if I would help and was very happy to and became extremely excited about the prospects of creating an arts school for kids, for high school students. I've been doing this since I was 25 years old I'm much older now.
Speaker 3:So it's been a really wonderful experience and a great career.
Speaker 1:It's what defines me, and it's what I've been doing basically my whole adult life. Well, it's so clear that you love what you do. I mean, you're the tour. You're just full of enthusiasm. It's very genuine for every single student. You're probably called every single student that we walk by by their first name. You clearly know everybody and care about them. But this place is really spectacular. Why don't you just start by explaining what is a Governor's School?
Speaker 3:There are 19 Governor's Schools in the state of Virginia. The Governor's School for the Arts is the only Governor's School that is strictly for the arts. We host only high school students, so students in grades 9 through 12. They attend their neighborhood schools for their academics and then each school division buses their students into us Monday through Friday, basically from 1 to 5 every afternoon.
Speaker 3:We serve eight different school divisions, so we go as far west as Franklin to as far east as Virginia Beach and that's pretty special in and of itself because you have a group of students that come together who might not ever have had the opportunity to meet another kid like them from another part of the region. So the students are very, very excited about this school, about coming to this school, about the kind of instruction they're getting, about meeting people that they may not have ever had an opportunity to meet. They work with professional artists in all kinds of arts genres. We teach dance, instrumental music, musical theater, theater and film, which also has a technical theater component, visual arts and vocal music, which is largely our classical opera program. So within the dance program the students are learning all forms of dance. They're getting all kinds of dance experience from the traditional theater to non-traditional spaces, non-traditional experiences.
Speaker 3:Instrumental music we have a full orchestra, we have a jazz program, we have an audio engineering program, we have a composition program. So those students are also getting a wide range of opportunities and skills. In our musical theater program they are learning how to sing, dance, act and they put all of those pieces together. Our theater and film department has an acting track, it has a filmmaking track and it also has its design technical theater track and all of those students collaborate together while they're learning their particular track in that art form. And then we have a visual arts department, which has a really robust public art component.
Speaker 3:We do public art in corporations, throughout the city, hospitals, and they learn a gamut of different art forms. They can take glass. We have a partnership with our local museum that has a world-renowned glass studio. They take drawing, painting, graphic design, animation. Our students create their own yearbook from cover to cover, so they have a wide range of genres within the visual arts field. And then, lastly, is our vocal music department, which is our opera department, and again these students are learning the ins and outs of opera. They study opera history, they study specific opera singers, they produce a fully staged opera once a year. And then they also do art songs, they do a cabaret, they do a senior recital. This course of study, among all six of these departments, is focused on giving the students a very broad outlook on what they might want to hone into as they go into post-secondary study, or those that are not interested in going to college or university.
Speaker 3:They are learning things that they're going to be able to take with them right into the workforce.
Speaker 1:I'm blown away by this place. I can't believe what we saw. We saw the most beautiful opera singer just as we were passing through. It's incredible.
Speaker 3:These students thrive here. They want to do well at their neighborhood schools and their academics so that they can come here. This is a place where they have found their people like-minded students, like-minded friends, like-minded teachers. It's a very unique model in which most of the teachers here are professionals themselves or have had long-standing professional careers and were at a place in their life where they wanted to give back to students. Of course, the center of this place is what can we give to these kids to not just enrich their lives, but for them to really be able to go on and be creative people if that's the path they want to take. And, of course, we all know that being a creative person isn't just solely based on going into an arts career. They can use this creativity in all kinds of work, and we do have students that go off to be engineers and doctors and whatever it is that they want to be.
Speaker 1:Because they're getting their other half day of school. It's not as though they're skipping out on math and English and those things right.
Speaker 3:They're going they are getting their academics.
Speaker 1:And then this is extra or additional. It's additional, so how would somebody apply we?
Speaker 3:have an application process. It's an online application a few essay questions, they have to show us their grades, they have to get some letters of recommendation and then they submit actual audition material.
Speaker 3:So for instance, for the dance department, they can send in a video up to two or three minutes long of any dance genre that they like and they upload that to the application and we review it. This goes for all of the all of the departments. They send in those different criteria on our website for each department and that's what we call the first round, where everything is done online and then we invite students in to have in-person auditions, which may be the same thing that they've submitted online but we want to see it live, or it may be something different. Again, it just depends on the particular art form. It's a bit of a process. The application is really not difficult.
Speaker 3:We, during COVID, our application process all became online and we realized that to give better access to everybody, we continue to do it this way. So our first round is all online. Students don't need anything fancy To make a video. It can just be done with their phones. They can have a teacher or a family member or friend help them. It can be done in their living room, in their kitchen. We're looking for the opportunity to give as many students who wanted to participate a chance to do it.
Speaker 1:So what in the dance department? What kinds of dance are you teaching?
Speaker 3:All kinds. We teach ballet, we teach contemporary, we teach tap, we teach West African dance, house dance. It really varies with our faculty. We get a sense of what the students are interested in. They take dance history, they take dance vocabulary classes and they all the seniors in the entire school all have to do a senior capstone. So they also take composition and choreography and then our senior dancers have to actually produce a show that they choreograph, they rehearse, they do the PR, the marketing all of that and they produce a senior choreography showcase.
Speaker 1:So if you're an eighth grader and you've never danced in your life, do you have any shot at getting in here?
Speaker 3:Yes, you do, Because the first part of that application we're going to just see you move and the dance faculty is going to look for potential. What kind of qualities is that student showing? And then when we bring that student in person, when we're actually giving them instruction, they typically take a part of a class. So yes, you do not have to have any experience for the opportunity to audition.
Speaker 1:But do you get people who have had tons of dance training?
Speaker 3:Yes, we run again.
Speaker 1:Is that a problem if you get like an extremely well-trained ballerina with a person who just decided that they want to be in your school for dance? No, because we have different levels different classes, you know.
Speaker 3:So, no, we really work that out so that everybody can be in a place that is where they're at In general, for the entire school, we really want to meet the kids where they're at.
Speaker 1:Our studio uses Akeda software and we absolutely love it. If you want to take control of everything from employees to parents, costume ordering to registration, try Akeda today. If you don't love it, they won't charge you a thing. Go to akadasoftwarecom, aka da softwarecom, to inquire about your free trial today. So does the faculty have to have the traditional bachelor and teacher, or can they just be somebody who's been in the theater and has a phenomenal background and wants to give back, because I know you're a public school? Yes, that's correct. So how does that work?
Speaker 3:So they do not again. This was a very unique model when the school was first set up in 1987, where the model was we wanted to bring in professional artists as the teachers so that the teachers are not required to have Virginia licensure like in a traditional public school. And there are some teachers that do that have gone that route anyway because they want to but, basically, we have a school filled with working artists that have a passion for teaching young people what they know best and what they love best.
Speaker 1:That's great. That's so good for the students.
Speaker 3:It's a very cool place. For some of the programs, the students are allowed to call their teachers by their first name. And that again is done by design to try to break down some of those barriers where the students? Can feel like they have a different kind of connection to their teachers.
Speaker 1:Well, we always called our teachers at our dance studio growing up in Michigan Pam and Pat, and when I got here it's, you know, southern, and you have to say Miss Sally and Miss Everything, and honestly I don't love that just because I wasn't used to it. But people would say it's for respect. But I can tell you that there's nobody on Earth I respected more than Pam and Pat, and that's all we called them.
Speaker 3:Right, and that's really the same thing here. We don't feel like there's any crossing of boundaries. The students are very respectful. They understand. You know who these people are, even though they're calling them by their first name.
Speaker 1:So I came here thinking I was talking to you about the Governor's School in the summer school program. Talk to us about the summer school program for dancers for the Governor's School.
Speaker 3:There is a summer Governor's School program that is housed at Radford University. It's been at Radford for a few years but I know prior to that it had been, it had changed from place to place throughout the state of Virginia. So, as you were referencing earlier when we were speaking about this, at one time it was at University of Richmond, at one time it was, I think, at Shenandoah or various places, but I do believe it's been at Radford for a number of years now and that is a five or six week program that is free, that students in the public school system can audition for, and they do that through their neighborhood high schools, so they talk to a counselor or a gifted resource teacher to let them know of their interest and that process takes place at their particular schools.
Speaker 3:They're nominated in some cases, and then they actually rent our facility to hold their larger auditions, and they do that in January. And that's how they choose the students who will participate in this summer governor's program. And it's not just dance, it's humanities, it's music, it's theater.
Speaker 1:But the dancers are just with dancers doing, just dance for several weeks, but they also do humanities.
Speaker 3:There's crossover and we've had some of our governor's school students go there who have enjoyed it very much.
Speaker 1:So a student who doesn't live anywhere near here, like where I'm from Alexandria, they would just talk to their counselor. I don't feel like there's enough awareness about that program in particular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say definitely head off to your counselor and ask about it. How do I get the opportunity to audition or to participate? I'm assuming that different school districts within the state may do it differently.
Speaker 1:I would recommend that all dance studio owners reach out to their local schools and ask the counselors what does it entail? How can we connect our dancers with the counselors so that they make sure that this opportunity doesn't get missed? Because not only is it an unbelievably great experience, it's free, it looks great on your college application, especially if you want to do anything and dance when you're going to school for college. Right? There's just so many good things about it, but I don't think people know about it or maybe I'm the only one that doesn't know about it.
Speaker 3:Well, I feel like it's sort of a well-kept secret, but more and more we are trying to get the word out and, as the school has grown over the last 36 years, of course we have thousands of alumni out there now who are doing wonderful things in the arts and in other areas of life in their communities. But they really, for the most part, look back on this high school experience much like you look back on a college experience. They really hold this place to a very high degree. For them it's the formative years and it makes such an impact on young people and again, the center of our universe here is how can we serve these students?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what if you're at a private school and you're all of a sudden falling in love with dance and you wanna participate in this school? Is that even possible?
Speaker 3:No, you can. Anybody can apply to the school, whether you're a homeschool student, a private school student or a public school student. Anybody can go through the audition process. You can get accepted. But once you're accepted you have to be enrolled in a public school in one of the eight school divisions. Again, since COVID there's been more virtual options for students, but it has to be a virtual option that's affiliated with one of the public school systems, and almost all of them have that. So it still is possible to do a virtual school, which I know is not exactly homeschool, but you can do a virtual option and then still attend. Again, it's gotta be part of the public school system.
Speaker 1:So how many students here at this school are dance students?
Speaker 3:We have 83 dance students.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:In the total school we have 396, which is our largest enrollment in the history of the school. So we started out in the 150s and just steadily increased our enrollment.
Speaker 1:So you have 83 dancers. How many are boys? How many are girls?
Speaker 3:Think this year we have six boys, so we're not very balanced.
Speaker 1:Do you try to offer boys a spot, if possible, or?
Speaker 3:If there's a boy that really wants to come and work and do it, great, we want to have the boys here In the entire school. We are still pretty heavily female to male. Overall, I saw lots of boys today, but it's still, when you look at the actual numbers.
Speaker 1:So who are some of your notable alumni or success stories that you want to tell me about?
Speaker 3:Oh well, we have quite a few. We have Jeanette Hanley was a dancer with the Hartford Ballet, princeton Ballet. We have Jenny Robinson, who danced with Ballet West. We have Sarah Emery who danced with I think it was Houston, don't? I hope I'm not speaking on that. Brian Simerson danced with Momix for many, many years. Adrienne Warren just won a TOTI Award for her role as Tina Turner, and Tina Turner the musical Grant Gustin was the flash on CW's the Flash. Jay Clemens plays saxophone in the East Street Band with Bruce Springsteen. Oh my gosh, that's a lot.
Speaker 1:We have a lot. I mean, I could go on and on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I could go on and on.
Speaker 1:This episode is brought to you by Mixed Tape Studios, a full service recording studio online at mynewmixtapecom, a one-stop shop for all your recital and competition music editing needs, and some of the teachers here are former alumni. They come back and they love it.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, which is really exciting, we have about 15 alumni faculty members who are back home and want to come and teach.
Speaker 3:For instance, justin Coughlin, who is a well-known jazz pianist who has worked with Quincy Jones, among others, was touring the world and living in New York and he needed a rest from the touring gig life and decided to come home and now is teaching in our jazz department. We have one of our opera singers who sings with the local opera here but also teaches for us. The director of our technical theater program, sean Blue, is an alumni North Carolina School of the Arts and did all sorts of interesting work in the design tech field. Donovan Mitchell is a brand new full-time faculty member. He's graduated, I believe, in the class of 2008.
Speaker 3:He's a Carnegie Mellon grad, he's a groundlings grad, he's been on television and film and on the stage. So yeah, a variety of alumni who have just really loved this place as a kid and went out to the world to learn more and to do more, and have reached a stage in their life when they want to give back.
Speaker 3:And actually some of them come not just because they're done with their careers, but they can really still keep their career going while being a part of this school, Another unique part of the model yes, and the students get to be seen by people who are actually working in the field. Absolutely, and the connections and the networking that we're able to provide to the students is invaluable. We have alumni come back just to speak to them about their journey and who they've met, and these students can then connect with them and just grow their network.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. So how can people follow you and stay abreast of what you're up to?
Speaker 3:Well, we have a website, gsartsorg. We are on Facebook, the Governor's School for the Arts. We're on Instagram at Gov School, so that's a great way to just see what our students are doing.
Speaker 3:We post snippets of classwork and performances and that kind of thing on our social media, so you get a feel for what the students are doing. I do want to tell you about one other event that we have. We are hosting the 14th Regional High School Dance Festival, and this is part of a larger organization that's called the National High School Dance Festival, which is founded and created by Catherine Kearns, who's out in Philadelphia. This national organization was created in 1992 and became the model for this very large network of high school dance and high school dance conferences. So there's a national festival that happens every other year and there's a regional festival that happens on those off years.
Speaker 3:I took students when I was chair of the dance department. I took students to the very first National High School Dance Festival, which was held at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and my students had a fantastic time there. They were able to take classes with all sorts of people from all over the country universities, colleges, summer dance programs and they were very much inspired. And when I came back I thought, well, I don't want to wait for the next one, because at that time we weren't exactly sure when the next one would be. So I thought, well, let's do our own, let's make one here. And so we did in 1993 or 1995.
Speaker 3:I actually can't remember. We created I created with my colleagues the Regional High School Dance Festival and it was the very first one in the region and it has grown from. I think the first one we had we had about 300 participants and now we expect 1200. Wow. And again, the model is such that we bring in college and university people and summer dance people to teach class. There's a big college fair, we have all sorts of master classes, workshops, lectures and student performances. So it's not exactly like the American College Dance Festival, but it's that kind of vibe where all of these different schools and kids are coming together to learn and to dance and to perform for one another.
Speaker 1:And how long does it last it's a weekend.
Speaker 3:It's a Thursday through Sunday. It's actually sold out in this region. Uh-oh, it's March 7th through 10th 2024. We have 54 high schools, mostly from the East Coast, but we do have a school from San Diego that's coming. There are two other regional festivals that are happening at the same time. One is at Texas A&M University and then one is in Beaverton, oregon, and that's another high school that's hosting it. So if you're out there and interested, we're sold out.
Speaker 1:but there are two others that I believe still have room and then think ahead for next year.
Speaker 3:Right. Next year will be a national festival and then the regionals happen after that. The national festival last year was held at Point Park University in Pittsburgh and we think it's not 100% confirmed that in 2025 that's where it will be again.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:But I'd like to also give you the national organization's website, which is nhsdforg nationalhighschooldancefestivalorg. We just we love this school and we're so proud that we can do great things for young people.
Speaker 1:I can see that in everybody. I've met every single person. Students look thrilled to be here and every faculty member just is beaming. You can see that they're enthusiastic about their students. They're happy to be here, happy to meet somebody that's walking through the halls. This place is vibrant. It's a very special place. I didn't know it existed, so I'm sharing it with my audience. Look into it, it's cool. Check in your own state to see if you have something similar and, if not, build one Right.
Speaker 3:Cool yeah.
Speaker 1:Find out how to do it. It's amazing. Well, thank you, deborah. Thank you for being my guest today. You've been a beautiful host to show me all around, and my eyes are open, my ears are opened. I just had a wonderful experience here, so thank you very much. Oh, thank you. We so appreciate it. Thanks for listening and don't forget please rate and review this show and share it with a friend.