• Theater: The High School Theater Department provides a progressive and inclusive curriculum designed to develop well-rounded theater artists, starting with the Foundational Core through the two-year Theater Arts 1 and 2 sequence, which introduces students to the roles of performer, writer, and director via active participation and practical skill-building. The program also features specialized opportunities, including the brand-new, half-credit Unified Theatre course (debuting 2025-2026) that facilitates collaborative theatrical work between special and general education students to strengthen communication and teamwork skills. For advanced students, the IB Diploma Programme Theatre offers a rigorous, inquiry-based course that positions students as creators, designers, directors, and performers, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the art form, critical research into the human condition, and global perspectives in theater practices to cultivate confidence, creativity, and an international-minded outlook.

• Dance:  The High School Dance Program centers entirely around the rigorous IB Diploma Program Dance course, which treats dance as a fundamental and evolving element of human existence — expressive movement defined by intent, purpose, and structure—and for which students receive both Academic and Physical Education credit. Aligned with the IB philosophy, the curriculum adopts a liberal arts approach that encourages students to integrate body, mind, and spirit while engaging with diverse historical, contemporary, and emergent dance forms from various cultural frameworks. The course cultivates creative potential through embodied expression, demanding the balanced development of performance, creative, and analytical capacities through activities like devising and performing choreography, and critically interpreting dance works as cultural and historical narratives, thereby preparing students for careers as performers, scholars, or for lifelong personal enrichment.

Theater Department:

Kathleen Mark (Director of the Arts)

Russell Dembin

Christine Brown

Dance Department:

Christina Ferrara-Mutter

• New York State Arts Standards: 
  • The New York State Learning Standards for the Arts outline the framework for student learning in dance, music, theater, and visual arts. You can find detailed information on these standards here: NYSED Art standards

• Relevant IB Subject Briefs:
  • IB Visual Arts Subject Brief: A brief for the visual arts course can be found here: IB Global Assets_Visual Artshttps://www.ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/programmes/dp/pdfs/visual-arts---hl.pdf
  • IB Music Subject Brief: A brief for the music course can be found here:IB Global assets
  • IB Theatre Subject Brief: A brief for the theater course can be found here: IB Programs_Theaterchrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/programmes/dp/pdfs/theatre-subject-brief-sl-hl-en.pdf
  • IB Dance Subject Brief: A brief for the dance course can be found here: IB Programs_Theater

https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/programmes/dp/pdfs/6_dancehl.pd

Theater/Dance-

Theater Flow Chart