Arts
Performing Arts
Creative Exploration
Experience the vibrant performing arts program at Poly. Students are offered a breadth of coursework to expose them to the arts with the intention of nurturing creativity, intellectual curiosity, and aesthetic understanding establishing a firm foundation in skills, content, and experience.
The Performing Arts Department is committed to three core principles:
- Art, while innate in some, can be learned by all. We therefore balance excellence with exploration, discipline with freedom, and consummate preparation with bold artistic risk.
- Art, while intrinsically valuable unto itself, educates the whole student. We therefore teach not only drama, music, and dance, but through them integrity, exploration, compassion, acceptance, resilience, confidence, humility, diversity, and love.
- Art, while the purest form of personal expression, transcends the personal and, through collaboration, connects the artist to the ensemble, the ensemble to the community, and the community to the world. We therefore value process over product and encourage students to “love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.
K-12 Performing Arts Program
List of 3 items.
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Lower School
Performing arts classes are integrated into the Lower School curriculum, as well as offered as electives that meet after-school. Three disciplines are taught:- Dance is introduced in the fourth grade and fifth-graders learn a special dance for the End of the Year Sing.
- Drama begins in the third grade. Group cooperation and social growth are key elements. Each grade level presents a production, either a play or a collection of improvisations.
- Music classes meet at all grade levels with curriculum that promotes the skills of music reading and theory, listening and music appreciation, singing, and performance. Third graders are given their initial instrumental experience through group lessons on violin or cello. All fourth graders take Strings and learn how to read music. In fifth grade, students can either select Music or Strings to continue their study of music.
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Middle School
From reading and writing music, choreographing a dance, to being part of the theatre tech crew, Middle School students of all abilities and experiences can explore opportunities in the performing arts!
Performing Arts course offerings include:- Beginning Band
- Cantatori (vocal music ensemble).
- Jazz Improvisation
- Movement and Oral Interpretation
- Musical Theatre
- Orchestra and Jazz Band
- Percussion Ensemble
- Technical Theatre
- Theatre
- Vocal Ensemble
- Dance
- Middle School Dance Ensemble
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Upper School
Upper School students have the opportunity to pursue performing arts courses throughout their Upper School career.
Course offerings (partial list):- Dance: Dance, Intermediate and Advanced Jazz Dance, Tap Dance
- Music: Jazz Band, Music Theory, Orchestra, Vocal Ensemble, Music Makers Lab
- Theatre: Acting (1-4), Directing, Technical Theatre (1-4), Spring Musical, Scriptwriting
Performance Opportunities- Cabaret Evening
- Dance Concert
- Fall play
- Orchestra Night
- Jazz Night
- Vocal Night
- Music Department assembly
- Winter play
- Upper School spring musical
- Various informal performances both on and off-campus
Poly Performing Arts Calendar
List of 4 events.
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Upper School: Performing Arts Rehearsal
South Campus - Garland Auditorium, South Campus - Upper Garland Studio (Black Box), South Campus - Lower Garland Studio (Dance) -
Upper School: Performing Arts Rehearsal
South Campus - Garland Auditorium, South Campus - Upper Garland Studio (Black Box), South Campus - Lower Garland Studio (Dance) -
Dance Concert: Rehearsals
South Campus - Garland Backstage Studio -
Upper School: Performing Arts Rehearsal
South Campus - Garland Auditorium, South Campus - Upper Garland Studio (Black Box), South Campus - Lower Garland Studio (Dance)
Recent Upper School Theatre Performances
- Anything Goes
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
- Head Over Heels
- In the Heights
- Last Days of Judas Iscariot
- The Little Mermaid
- Young Frankenstein
- Mamma Mia!
Watch Student Performances on Poly YouTube
Performing Arts News
1/20
Performing Arts Faculty
List of 9 members.
Resources
Policies
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