Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 25, 1995 TAG: 9511260005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Chris Chisom wants to be a dancer, and he is off to a good start, even though he's only a seventh-grader.
Chisom prefers modern dance, but he likes ballet, tap and jazz, too. He works daily in the dance studio with his classmates and teacher Liza Fritz. He has been taking dance since he entered Westside Elementary School in Roanoke.
Chisom is among more than 500 students at William Ruffner Middle School and William Fleming High School who are studying the arts in modern studios and laboratories that rival those at many colleges and universities.
Lamarr Casey, another seventh-grader, puts on earphones and begins playing a song in a lab at Ruffner with 23 pianos.
"I used to fiddle around with the keyboard,'' Casey said. ``I decided I wanted to learn how to play the piano."
During his first three months in the piano lab, he has learned to play "When the Saints Go Marching In" and other songs.
Enjoli Evans began taking a piano class this year and wishes she had started earlier.
"It connects well with my singing. ... I love it," Evans said.
The dance and piano classes are offered in the School of Unified Arts at the Fleming-Ruffner Magnet Center.
Students can study the visual arts, including painting, drawing and sculpture; the performing arts of drama, instrumental and vocal music; the literary arts of poetry, fiction, play writing; and art technology, which includes digital imaging, photography, graphic design, electronic music, and television and video production.
Susan Houston, coordinator of the arts school, said the courses have been growing in popularity since the school began offering them five years ago. The arts program has been expanded in the past two years; the television and video studio opened this year.
She said the school develops students' appreciation of the arts and gives them an opportunity to gain proficiency in one or more creative disciplines. Students are encouraged to sample several different art courses in the sixth and seventh grades to determine their interest. They then can begin taking more specialized courses.
The school provides pre-professional training for those who demonstrate commitment and talent, said Houston, who teaches piano and vocal music.
Some students get started in the arts at Westside, an elementary magnet school that offers classes in dance, music and drama. Others begin in the sixth grade at William Ruffner.
The school system showed off the studios and labs to parents and others, including Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, during an open house this week.
The facilities were financed with some of the more than $7 million in federal money the city received in recent years to develop three schools at the Fleming-Ruffner Magnet Center for the arts, global studies and science/engineering.
The television and video production studio, one of the most technologically advanced in Western Virginia, gives students an opportunity to work in live television and video production and learn editing techniques, said Tom Landon, director of the program.
The students are learning video production and have made television promotional spots for American Education Week and nonprofit agencies. They taped a meeting of the city School Board last week.
Landon said students are making a video yearbook of activities at Ruffner and Fleming. The studio is connected to the Cox Cable system and can broadcast on Channel 9. The school system may get its own channel on the cable system, Landon said.
The students eventually will produce a weekly or biweekly newscast of school activities for either live or video broadcast to all classes, Landon said.
Theory and music history are part of the music courses at the arts school. The school has electronic music studios where students can compose and study music theory. The students use synthesizers and computers, enabling them to play back the music and make immediate changes.
Houston said the arts school also offers creative writing classes in which students learn to write poetry and fiction as well as scripts for television and video production classes. Students produce a yearly magazine of poetry and artwork.
In photography courses, the students learn many aspects of photography, from taking pictures to developing film to making prints. They also learn digital photography and computer technology.
The goal of the city's magnet program is to balance the enrollment in the schools to reflect the school system's racial makeup of 60 percent white and 40 percent black students.
Tuition is free, but there is a $25 registration fee for students from outside the city.
Houston said the arts courses are popular. There are 120 students taking dance, 150 taking photography and 100 taking television and video.
Students in the arts school also take all academic courses that are required for a high school diploma and college preparation. They also can enroll in the International Baccalaureate Diploma program, a rigorous international academic curriculum at 500 high schools in 70 countries.
by CNB