Dancing for Change!

On December 20, the dance students from AAP Gallery 37 performed at the Museum of Science and Industry’s “A Night At The Museum!”  This event was sponsored by Chance the Rapper’s Social Works charity.  The students performed to a packed house - 10,000 people - at the sold out charity venue that was the second annual fund raiser to combat homelessness in Chicago.  Our students performed two excerpts from the Lion King supported by a choir comprised of CPS elementary school students.  The lead vocal soloist, Rashada Dawan, was a former Curie student of our dance teacher, Melinda Wilson.  She is living an artists’ dream as a union actress, winning praise throughout the US for her performance in the lead role as Caroline in, Caroline or Change, at the Goodman Theater.  Students received national exposure for their energetic rendition of Circle of Life and He Lives in You.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard of the amazing new animated film by Sony and Marvel; Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse.  The movie has received rave reviews, sitting at a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been one of the number one movies in America for weeks!

The film was an amazing blend of CG and hand-drawn animation with the aim of imitating the art of comic book illustrations. The animation team even tried to replicate color offsets, printing errors in comic books that can make a panel look like it’s slightly out of focus. The animation team rethought what an animated film could look like, and created brand new techniques across multiple programs to achieve the results seen in the film. In a regular animated film, it would take an artist about a week to animate four seconds of film. For Spider-Verse, it took each artist one week to animate one second.  The movie took over three years to animate and was a work of love for many involved in it.  It goes to show you how true inspiration can make a studio go beyond its usual comfort zone.  The quality of animation seen in this film is multiple levels above anything else we have seen from Sony Animated Studios. 

The animation team was literally inventing new strategies and pipelines they’ve never tried while animating the film with hard deadline ahead of them. To create a raw, less perfect look, the team decided not to use motion blur and numerous inbetweener frames, an effect in computer animation that blurs frames to imitate an image captured from a rapidly moving camera.  The animation for Into the Spider-Verse was done on twos (12 frames per second instead of 24). It’s a rare creative choice in CGI and is more often seen in Anime and older US based animation. 

Our Animation students were quite excited to experience this film on the big screen, so we organized a field trip for them to do just that!  Wednesday students went to the Showplace Icon on Roosevelt St to ENTER THE SPIDER-VERSE!  It was a fun and educational experience for the students.  Into the Spider-Verse is not only an amazing landmark in animation, but also for superhero films.  It stars Miles Morales, a 15 year old boy living in Brooklyn who is black, and gains the mantle of Spider-Man after the unfortunate death of Peter Parker.  He encounters Spider-Gwen, a female version of Spider-Man, and many other versions of the hero across multiple universes. 
The movie really shows its young viewers that anyone can wear the mask and be a hero! 

Our students were able to break down the animated processes used in the film in an in class critique the next day, and were so excited and pumped about the film a day later that the soundtrack was on repeat in class all day.  As the future of Animation it has inspired our students to reach new heights and we can't wait to see where they take this inspiration!

Caitlin Stich, our CPS teacher in Video and 3D Computer Modeling (aka Animation and Sequential Arts) has just recently received National Board Teacher Certification!  The National Board believes that every student deserves to be taught by an accomplished teacher.  The process that was developed by teachers for teachers is a rigorous standards-based process to ensure that teachers who receive this distinction have demonstrated what highly accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.  Anyone who knows about NBTC knows that only the best of the best succeeds, and Caitlin has proven she is one of the best!  We are so happy she is part of our team!

“National Board Certification was designed to develop, retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing improvement in schools nationwide. It is the most respected professional certification available in K-12 education.”

- Until next time.  Stay creative, Chicago!

Joseph Powers received the YoungArts Merit Award in Jazz!

CONGRATULATIONS JOSEPH!

We are so excited to report that Joseph Powers, from Lane Tech College Prep and a second year Jazz Ensemble participant here at AAP has received a Merit Award from the YoungArts Foundation.  His teacher, Jarrard Harris, has been with the jazz program at AAP Gallery 37 for ten years and has ferried his students to attend, be accepted, and receive scholarships to the top music school in the country.  He records and pre-screens their audition tapes and encourages them to submit their recordings to highly competitive competitions such as, YoungArts. Joseph will continue to pursue music once he graduates this year and has applied to the following schools with elite music programs: University of Michigan, Oberlin, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Indiana University. 
We wish Joseph the very best with his college admissions!

The YoungArts Award is a very prestigious award and Joseph, as a Merit awardee, is eligible for a trip to NYC. "YoungArts' winners consist of the nation’s most promising young artists in the visual, literary, design and performing arts. Selected from a competitive pool of applications and representing artists from across the country, YoungArts winners gain access to one of the most comprehensive programs for emerging artists in the United States, offering financial, professional and artistic development opportunities over the course of their careers.  Selected through a blind adjudication process conducted by an independent panel of highly accomplished artists, the winners represent the top 10 percent of applications."  YoungArts (2018)
- Until next time.  Stay creative, Chicago!

Chloe Cabrales, a senior, is in her second year of dance at the CPS Advanced Arts Program (AAP) at Gallery 37. On November 28, 2019, she was honored and recognized for excelling in the classroom, community, and in her case, for her focus in the category “Media and Entertainment”.  Honorees competed with more than 13,000 applicants for eighteen coveted awards in the Chicago region. Chloe received a bronze medal and educational grants to continue onto her college career where she wants to double major in dance and psychology.  

We couldn’t be prouder to have Chloe in our program. She is a beacon to other students of what is possible through hard work and dedication to what one is passionate about – and for Chloe it is dance, particularly Bomba. She is a role model not only for her talent, effort, dedication, and persistence, but also for her kindness.  AAP celebrates her and wishes her all the best as she continues onward in her effort to make positive change in the world through the arts.

The Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) was established by the White House in 1987.  Its mission is to inspire, prepare, and position Latino leaders in the classroom, community, and workforce to meet America’s priorities and to promote Latino cultural pride and showcase their accomplishments.

- Until next time.  Stay creative, Chicago!