Research suggests that students engaged in the performing arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement compared with their non-performing friends—and they tend to have enhanced cognitive, motor, and social development, too. Of course, there are programs (e.g., Town of Apex, private lessons, etc.) all around Apex for learning and practicing dance, music, theater, and more, but sometimes kids don’t have to look any further than their school.
And with local schools in mind, let’s look at what students are learning when it comes to the performing arts.
Dance
Sydney Potter has been the dance program director at Apex Friendship High School for over two years.
There are four levels of dance available to students at AFHS: Dance I, Dance II, Proficient Honors Ensemble, and Advanced Dance Company. All classes focus on developing dance technique, choreography, performance, exploration of different dance styles, dance history, and more. Dance I/II are more introductory level courses available to all students. Both honors courses are year-long and audition-based with a large focus on student-centered choreography and a particular exploration of jazz and contemporary forms.
The dance program at AFHS is thriving and continues to grow. Each semester, there are around 80 students enrolled. As part of the curriculum, students work in class to develop choreography for a showcase at the end of the semester. The lengthy process includes choreography, feedback, revision, lighting design, costume design, and other aspects. It is highly collaborative and allows students to evolve their skills in creativity, communication, and critical thinking.
“In my class, students are not only advancing their dance movement skills, but they are learning to create and produce dance while also understanding the importance of community along the way. In the fall, we have a winter showcase. In the spring, we have an honors concert solely dedicated to the honors courses to promote their hard work, and then a spring showcase featuring the whole program,” Potter shared.
This spring, the honors concert will be held on April 11 at 7:00 p.m. and is free to the community. Tickets for the spring showcase on May 16 can be purchased at this link: https://afhsdanceboosters.com/.
“I am in frequent conversations with my students about how privileged we are to have arts and dance in schools,” Potter said, “especially as some students would not have the opportunity otherwise. They’ve disclosed to me that it is their safe space, to be encouraged to take risks, to simply move together, and a break in their day to truly express themselves. Dancers are unique in that as they work to navigate their training with their education, and as they dedicate so much time to homing in on their skills, they are developing valuable traits that carry over into other aspects of their lives. Creative problem-solving, time management, precision, risk-taking, adaptability, connection-making, and work ethic, to name a few. This philosophy is a large focus within my curriculum, and it is a priority of mine to ensure that by the time students leave my class, they have considered the versatile impact that dance imparts.”
Caroline Brady has been the dance director at Apex High School for three years.
There are four core classes that students can enroll in. Starting at base level, Dance 1 Beginnings is a fall semester course that anyone can register for with little to no experience in dance. Dance 2 Intermediate builds on skills presented in Dance 1 and can be taken year-long. Beyond Dance 2 are audition-only honors classes in Honors Dance Proficient (also called Ensemble), and Honors Advanced Dance (i.e., Apex Dance Company). The honors programs are year-long and usually include 30-45 dancers. The beginning and intermediate classes can have 60-70 dancers yearly!
There are also three extracurricular programs available to students: National Honors Society of Dance Arts (NHSDA), Dance Club, and Dance Team. NHSDA is an honors program for honors-level dancers that meets once a month during school hours. Dance Club meets once a week during lunch, and Dance Team is an athletics-based time commitment during football and basketball season.
Brady shared that her students demonstrate their skills in three performances throughout the year: a winter concert, a spring concert, and IMMERSE. “Our winter and spring shows are based on material that we cover in class with faculty, guest artists, and students, and our IMMERSE showcase is a collaborative show with other high schools completely produced, designed, and choreographed by our students,” she said.
IMMERSE is scheduled for March 20 and 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the school auditorium. The spring show is scheduled for May 23 and 24 at 7:00 p.m., also in the school auditorium.
The program calendar and dance updates are posted on Instagram @apexhsdanceprogram and linked to their website: apexhsdanceprogram.com
Brady underscored how the dancers in this area are truly incredible—talented, diverse, and hardworking. She described the programs in Apex as “stunning in design” and noted that students are coming into this space, working hard, and giving 100% without a second thought.
“Our kids are capable of so much phenomenal leadership and compassion towards each other in our school buildings. Whenever I need a refresh from being a teacher in the world, all I need to do is look at my seniors, my alumni, the way they are working in the community and the beauty they put into the world. They make me want to be a better person,” she shared.
Images from their instagram can be used with credit to Chris Nieto of Raleigh Dance Photography
Band
Daniel Jarvis is in his seventeenth year of teaching band in North Carolina public schools and in his ninth year at Apex High School.
The program offers three different levels of concert bands during the school day that students can take based on proficiency with their instrument. The after-school offerings include marching band, jazz band, percussion ensemble, and pit orchestra for the spring musical.
Right now, there are around 100 students in the band program. Before Covid, the number of students in band was closer to 140. “Our numbers are slowly ticking back up and I’m glad to see that,” Jarvis said.
The bands play over 30 performances of some kind every year. These include everything from football games and band competitions to parades, concert band shows throughout the school year, and multiple performances of the other ensembles in various settings on and off campus.
Over the years, the band has played from Florida to New York and many places in between. Links to their event calendars (https://www.apexhighband.org/) provide band-specific events and a broader calendar (https://www.wcpss.net/Page/14079#calendar27845/20240228/month) provides multiple events for the arts, athletics, and other school events.
Jarvis noted how the band has a consistent record of receiving superior ratings at concert band and marching band festivals for the last several years.
“We performed at the TaxSlayer Bowl in 2017 in Orlando [and] we have had numerous students make the All-District and All-State Bands over the last several years. Our success is a tribute to the great students that make up the Apex High School Band. They are the reason we have been able to do such cool things. We also have former band students in most major universities in our state, and other prestigious universities throughout the country,” he noted.
Jarvis shared his thoughts on the importance of music and how it helps people express what cannot be expressed in any other way. He said music is a direct line to the spirit and soul of every human being. It is a language all its own and it has to have a place of importance in our schools. “Many students have found a ‘home’ in our band room and every other band room,” he said. “It is a place of belonging and creativity and fun. We always need to keep music in a prominent position in our curriculum. There is great value in being a part of a music ensemble. Music not only educates the mind, but also develops the heart of the student.”
Chorus
Sam Wanamaker is the chorus director at Apex Friendship High School. He did his internship there and never looked back. Wanamaker noted that students in chorus sing all year long. Classes prioritize vocal technique with students learning skills in developing voice through focus in breath, resonance, and space. They prioritize music literacy and aural skills. This is where students learn how to read music and hear the relationship between different lines in music. Lastly, these classes prioritize community and giving students a space to work hard and grow.
The chorus program at AFHS has around 120 students who perform at many concerts throughout the year. “Annually, we do an Informance, winter concert, [the Apex] tree lighting ceremony, MPA [Music Performance Adjudication], spring concert, pops concert with our band program, and a spring trip,” Wanamaker said.
Students also engage in a performance tour at different places across the country and the world. “This year, we are touring with Apex High School in Charleston, SC. Next year we will be touring in Ireland for spring break,” he noted.
The chorus program prioritizes community and sings often with their neighbors at Apex High School. Wanamaker said they love to collaborate and are better together.
Upcoming concerts include the spring concert on April 18 at 7:00 p.m. and a pops concert on May 23 at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. with the AFHS band program where the chorus will perform popular music. Tickets for the spring chorus concert on April 18 are $10 for adults, free for WCPSS students. Admission is free for the pops concerts on May 23.
“I believe chorus changes students’ lives. It provides students an opportunity to work in a physical way out of a desk, it gives them something to work towards, it gives students a chance to find confidence in their voice which helps with their own social skills and confidence. It gives students a chance to make connections in a different way,” Wanamaker closed.
Information about AFHS chorus can be found at afhschorus.org.
Heather Copley has been the choral director at Apex High School for 26 years. She was named the North Carolina Music Educators High School Chorus Teacher of the Year in 2017.
There are four choral groups at AHS and between 100-130 students participating each year. The groups include Tenor/Bass Choir, Beginning/Intermediate Treble Choir, Honors Treble Choir, and Advanced Mixed Choir. Every year, AHS chorus students participate by audition in the North Carolina Honors Chorus and the All-Carolina Wingate Invitational Honors Choir. They also participate in the state’s Music Performance Adjudication.
Copley shared that they present three major concerts each year—winter concert (December), spring concert (April), and the pops concert (May)—but also perform with other area choral group.
“Each October, we participate in a Collaborative Choral Festival called Common Threads. The event includes Apex Friendship High School, Apex High School, Salem Middle School, and Apex Middle School. The middle school students are partnered with a high school student. We spent the day together rehearsing and playing ensemble building games. We perform a concert together that evening. It’s an awesome evening! It also provides an opportunity to bring our community together in a non-competitive way,” she shared.
The biggest collaborative effort (across multiple performing arts departments at Apex High) is the spring musical. Auditions are open to the entire school with chorus, band, drama, technical theater, and dance all involved.
In addition to performing by invitation at the North Carolina Music Educators Conference and the North Carolina American Choral Directors Conference, the Apex choral students have toured Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and England. They performed at the Pearl Harbor Parade in Hawaii, Carnegie Hall in New York City, and Symphony Hall in Chicago. “We also performed at the Candlelight Christmas Processional in Disney World with Whoopi Goldberg and Neil Patrick Harris,” Copley added.
Copley closed by saying, “The arts at Apex High School promote teamwork, collaboration, discipline, [and] build community, responsibility, commitment, and independence. Our chorus mottos over the last few years that we constantly use are ‘Excellence is our standard, not our goal’ and ‘Suffering Builds Character.’”
Drama
Laura Levine has been the theater performance director at Apex High School since 2013. The school offers two “tracks” of theatre courses—performance and technical theatre—and students can take classes in both tracks. They have levels beginning, intermediate, proficient honors, and advanced honors in theatre arts (performance) and levels beginning, intermediate, and proficient honors in technical theatre.
The beginning levels are open to all students, regardless of prior experience, and students can advance through the upper levels by audition or instructor recommendation, based on their demonstrated skill mastery in the beginning and intermediate levels. The upper-level technical theatre students design and produce all of the “behind the scenes” elements for the fall play, spring musical, and honors theatre production, including costumes, hair, makeup, props, lights, sound, scenery, stage management, and scenic painting. The students in the honors theatre courses produce a full-length play in mid-May.
Apex High School’s theatre arts program draws approximately 300 students per year through classes and extracurricular productions. They typically have 50-75 students involved in the fall play, and 75-100 students involved in the musical. In addition, approximately 125 students take technical theatre classes each year, and approximately 140 students take performance classes.
“There is, of course, some overlap in students who participate in productions and in classes,” Levine told me. “We produce three shows a year—a fall play in mid- to late-October, a spring musical the first weekend of March, and an honors theatre production in mid-May. Our spring musical ran from February 29-March 2, and our honors theatre production will take place May 9 at 7:00 p.m. and May 11 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 pm.”
Further describing the nuances of the school’s drama program, Levine explained, “In the spring of 2022, several of my students attended a workshop on ‘Artivism’ (Activism through the Arts) at the North Carolina Thespian Festival, and as a result started an initiative to offer ‘relaxed and sensory-friendly’ performances at Apex High. We collaborated with Arts Access NC to make this happen, and since then have offered an accessible performance for three shows—“Walk Two Moons” (Fall 2022), “Seussical The Musical” (Spring 2023), and “The Phantom Tollbooth” (Fall 2024). To my knowledge, we are the only public high school in Wake County to offer relaxed or sensory-friendly performances,” she shared.
For Levine, the arts programs in schools are absolutely essential! Through participation in the arts, students learn essential skills in communication, collaboration, creativity, self-expression, critical thinking, leadership, and problem solving.
“My life was changed through the opportunity to take arts classes in school,” she explained, as the proud product of Wake County Public Schools, “and it was through these experiences that I developed a love for theatre and a passion and drive to share that love with others. I truly believe that the arts change lives, and I encourage anyone who can to go out and see productions at their local schools to support the students involved, and to provide essential funding that allows these programs to continue.”
Learn more about Apex High School theater through their website (www.apexdrama.com) and social media at @apexpeakplayers.
Technical Theater
Bryan Bunch has been at Apex High School teaching technical theater for two years. Prior to this relatively new teaching gig, Bryan spent most of his time performing in local theater.
At AHS, there are three levels of technical theatre. The beginning level is a survey course of all the areas where students build vocabulary and technique, and in the intermediate and advanced levels, they concentrate on one to two areas of tech theatre and apply their skills toward three productions during the school year.
Bunch sees the biggest takeaways from these classes to be the cultivation of essential life skills like time management, communication, collaboration, and taking pride in one’s work. But Bunch pointed out that many other skills come into play, like carpentry and sewing.
Technical theater typically includes about 100 beginning-level students and between 30 and 50 upper-level technicians who work on the shows, many of whom take the class twice in a school year, so it is year-long.
“We fully support three full-scale theatrical productions each school year in every area of tech theater and then also run eight to 12 other arts events in the auditorium, such as chorus, band, and dance concerts,” Bunch said.
The advanced acting class production was undetermined at press time, but it is scheduled for May 9 at 7:00 p.m. and May 10 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets can be found at Apexdrama.com.
Whether our students find their joy in dance, song, instruments, or theater we can rest assured that they are in good hands. If there was any doubt, we now know that Apex is the Peak of Great Performing, too!
