DANCE PROGRAM
The McCallum High School and Fine Arts Academy Dance Program offers a rigorous dance curriculum in a public high school setting to prepare students for both professional and academic excellence. The core dance curriculum has its foundation in the study of ballet, modern/contemporary, and jazz dance techniques, composition/choreography, performance, aesthetics, anatomy/somatics, cultural/historical studies and analysis. The program develops expertise in these areas that can be applied to the various creative and intellectual interests of the student. To this end, the program is committed to providing the study of global dance forms such as African dance, Latin dance, Hip Hop etc., in order to develop student leadership and learning in a 21st century context. The Dance Majors’ curriculum meets the requirements for the National Honor Society for Dance Arts.
Learning outcomes include artistic/aesthetic development, technical acuity, dance/movement theory: inquiry and application, creative process and dance design, performance intention and virtuosity, critical reasoning and analysis, and inter and intra-personal skill development. The Dance Department produces two main-stage productions each year with numerous other performance opportunities including student-run productions. Upon acceptance into the Fine Arts Academy, dance majors become part of the McCallum Youth Dance Company and are required to perform in both main-stage dance productions for all four years in order to maintain their status as dance majors in The Academy.
Principles of Dance I, II, III, and IV students have the opportunity to increase their dance knowledge by enrolling in dance classes through the comprehensive high school procedures. There is an annual dance concert for these students to provide the opportunity to perform. Non-majors can decide to audition for the dance program provided they qualify based on the specific requirements.
The McCallum Youth Dance Company has three levels of study:
I. The Emerging Dance Troupe is a double blocked course for our first-year students.
II. The Intermediate Ensemble is taken in the second year and is taken congruently with the required ballet course.
III. The Pre-Professional Dance Group is the highest level of study at McCallum. It is a double blocked course taken in the third & fourth years of the program.
Additionally, students in the Dance Major are required to take anatomy and physiology.
RECENT GUEST TEACHERS:
Olivia Chacon of Flamencura Dance Company
Alyson Dolan of Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
Amy Morrow of AMARTS
Tina Curran, Professor of Dance at UT Austin
Kelsey Oliver of KOgraphy
Rachel Meador, local dance journalist and dance professional
Brooke Schlecte, Baylor University, Out on a Limb Dance Company
Ashlee Langas, Season 3 So You Think You Can Dance
Jean Claude-Lessou, West African Dancing
Stephanie Keeton, Dancer and Teacher at Esquina Tango
MISSION:
I. Our Mission is to inspire dance artists to achieve academic and creative success. Dancers will graduate from McCallum Dance prepared to enter top university dance programs and pursue a career in dance. We recognize that not all dancers want to become professional artists but we believe that the skills of the artist are transferrable into all areas of academic study and professional pursuits.
II. We build an artistic community through diversity and respect for dance as culture. Most of our dance majors come into the department with a movement style preference, we encourage them to branch away from their norm to study and understand dances different from their own. Our dance majors graduate with a broad range of social and emotional experiences and movement capabilities that expand their ideas about art, dance, culture and community.
III. Enforcing a “learning how to learn” curriculum allows our dance majors to recognize design concepts and patterns of movements in order to create things and solve problems in unique ways.
IV. We believe that dance becomes even more important in a technological society. Our curriculum incorporates technological advances in art and commerce and education.
DANCE CURRICULUM:
Ballet
Modern Dance
Jazz Dance: classic jazz, contemporary jazz, Latin jazz, Afro-jazz, tap
Hip-Hop Dance
Contemporary Topics in ballet, modern, jazz and hip-hop dance
Social Dance: vernacular and partner dances
World Dance Forms
Improvisation/Composition/Choreography
Laban Movement Analysis and Theory
Language of Dance ®
Dance History
Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology
Accomplishments:
I. All graduating dance majors at McCallum complete the requirements for membership in the prestigious National Honors Society for Dance Arts. The NHSDA cord represents students' accomplishments via study of dance performance, choreography, history and theory through the art forms of ballet, modern jazz, cultural and social dance forms.
II. All MAC Youth Dance Company members make a commitment to inclusive, non-competitive dance, building community and collaborating, by using artistic practice as a place of rigorous inquiry and culturally responsive learning
III. The opportunity to work with some of Austin’s top professional choreographers including Millie Heckler, Alyson Dolan, Ty Graynor, MAC Dance Alumni Terrance Carson, Alex Miller and Olivia Chacon.
IV. Masterclasses with The Verdon/Fosse Legacy and many other nationally recognized artists.
V. College trips to some of the best university dance programs in Texas, where company members dance alongside university level dance majors.
VI. Trips to The National High School Dance Festival, where students audition for top university dance programs, the best summer dance programs in the country, taking masterclasses and viewing dance alongside a national cohort of high school performing arts school peers.
VII. Each year student choreography is adjudicated by professional dance artists. These adjudications were a diligent process in which your academic and dance research led to the development and presentation of an original dance work.
VIII. Each year dancers conceptualize, and bring to fruition, a full-length, fully produced student generated dance concert.
Natalie Uehara
Director of Dance
Black Box and Field House
Natalie Uehara is a former professional dancer who holds a BFA in dance from Marymount Manhattan College in NYC. She is an award-winning choreographer and sought-after dance educator who is skilled at helping dancers of all levels reach their highest potential. She is the director of the McCallum Youth Dance Company and the resident choreographer for MAC Theatre, both located at the McCallum Fine Arts Academy in Austin, TX. Before relocating to Austin from Honolulu, HI, she was the director of Castle DanceForce and resident choreographer for the internationally recognized Castle Performing Arts Center. For 10 plus years, she directed theatre education programs and choreographed shows at Diamond Head Theatre, most recently, the Hawaii premiere of Matilda in 2019. In 2010, she won a Hawaii State Theatre Council award for choreography for her work on the Hawaii premiere of the musical, Zombie Prom. Additionally, She has received multiple nominations for the Heller Awards (Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards), winning the award for Best Choreography in 2019 for 42nd Street and Best Production in 2023 for Pippin. Additionally, she is the Musical Theatre Director for Dance Discovery & Avery Ranch Dance, co-choreographer for the AISD Summer Theatre Series, and adjunct teacher at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts located in Houston, TX. Natalie is married to Chris and together they have two beautiful children, Kobe & Giabella.
Terrance Carson
Director of Dance
Black Box and Field House
Terrance L. Carson Jr. (Austin, TX) began his dance training in the 7th grade under the direction of China Smith and Ballet Afrique Contemporary Dance Company where he trained in African, Modern, Ballet, Jazz, Ballroom, and Contemporary. He is currently the Associate Artistic Director of Ballet Afrique.
He attended the McCallum High School Fine Arts Academy as a dance major taught by faculty members Rachel Murray and Brazie Adamez. During his time in high school, he worked with guest artists such as Amy Morrow, Quinton Weathers, Rosero McCoy, and Olivia Chacon before graduating in 2016.
In 2020, Terrance earned a BFA in Modern Dance as a Nordan Fine Arts Scholar at the Texas Christian University School for Classical and Contemporary Dance. His performance highlights at TCU include works by faculty Suki John, Nina Martin, and Susan Douglas-Roberts, and guest artists Jordan Fuchs, Lee Wei Chao, Jennifer Nugent, Abby Zbikowski, Francisco Aviña, and Adam Barruch.
Dance Website and Social Media
Instagram: @macyouthdanceco