Photo by Unknown

As a boy in a school uniform gets off the bus on tree-lined Riverside Drive early one fall morning, faculty and staff inside the Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex School prepare for a busy day. The boy carries a large white cello case behind him on his way to the front door. The cello case is bigger than he is. From behind, he looks like a walking cello case. He stops when he reaches the first low step outside the school and shifts the weight. He continues in the door, balancing the load just fine.

It's 7 a.m., and middle-school students taking music, dance, acting and visual arts classes file in the front door where performing arts coordinator and assistant principal Marlynn Martin greets them. She oversees the daily logistics operation at Power APAC.

In the morning, buses bring in 45 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders for two periods of focused fine-arts study. In the middle of the day, two classes of elementary-school students come for the ACCESS program; they spend time during the year learning a little about all the fine arts offered at APAC.

Then in the afternoon, high-school students come for specialized classes in their chosen field. And throughout the day, academically talented fourth and fifth graders have a normal school day.

Keeping everyone moving and where they need to be takes a constant and steady hand. "This is the only school like this in the state," Martin says, smiling at a student passing in the wide hall.

It is an unusual public school. While Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven is a residential high school, Power APAC is an arts school for Jackson Public Schools students in grades four through 12. Most of the students who start in fourth grade stay with the same instructors until graduation, giving them an opportunity to master their art.

JPS students compete for a chance to attend Power APAC. Every year the staff and faculty hold auditions for kids who can sing, dance, paint or act. Slots are limited, and not everyone who applies gets in. It gets tougher as the kids get older. Students already in the program have to prove they still belong. Even so, few slots open up for high-school students.

Dance, music, theater and visual arts are offered at varying levels for all students; an eighth-grade student can work on the same level as a senior.

‘Shining Star'
Sandra Polanski, chairwoman of the music department, comes in before 7 a.m. each day to prepare for piano and music-theory classes, and to provide students with extra help in the morning. She has taught at Power APAC since its inception in 1982.

"Erase your sharp sign," she says, bending over one student's shoulder and piano keyboard. With her up-do, Polanski, wearing cream pants, a golden-brown lacy jacket and a simple seashell necklace, could go straight to the symphony or the grocery store with ease and grace.

"What do we need here and here?" she asks a student.

The young girl pencils a mark.

"F-sharp. And this is correct."

Polanski is pleased.

She walks from student to student, checking work and answering questions as the students quietly pad on their keyboards.

The sounds are so soft that all 20 keyboards in the classroom can play ,and Polanski never has to raise her voice.

"Leave it blank if you don't need it. Don't use it," she says, and then straightens her back for emphasis. "It's very mechanical. It's cut and dry."

As students come in for the first class of the day, they pile backpacks in front of the class and grab a music book. Some pick up Bach, some pick up folk tunes, others have basic beginner's books. Even though the first bell hasn't rung, yet, the students are quiet, polite and immediately go to work.

Polanski passes back the practice plans students had turned in the day before. She graded their detailed plan of what pieces they were practicing, how long they intended to practice, how much time they would devote to improvisation and what they think their weak points are. This is a weekly assignment, and it is a detailed worksheet with many blanks to fill in. Several students look intently on their returned plans.

When the bell rings, Polanski has her students stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for some warm-up exercises.

"If you have your hands in your pockets, you can't do any physical activity at all," she tells them.

She leads the class through head rolls, upper body stretches, squats and bends.

"I hear knees snapping," she says. "Now, let's walk in place." She places one graceful hand on her upper abdomen. "Remember; this is your center of rhythm."

An announcement comes over the school intercom: The elementary school will celebrate its recent Star ranking, the highest the state gives individual schools. The students will perform for the PTA at an upcoming meeting. The voice over the intercom says the song they will sing is "by a really old group, Earth Wind and Fire."

As the song "Shining Star" begins over the intercom, students in Polanski's class look at each other with wide eyes and slight grins. Someone giggles, then suppresses it.

"You're a shining star
No matter who you are
Shining bright to see
What you could truly be."

Polanski puts a hand on her hip. "Do you hear the bass?" she asks. "What key are they in?"

After the announcement, the class works on guided practice. Polanski walks from student to student, occasionally singing out "... and two and three and four" and makes notes as she travels.

"I see some people have worked over their fingernails. Thank you very much. Look at yours. They need to be clean, and they need to be trim," she says.

At the end of one row of pianos, a tall eighth grader's fingers speed along the keyboard, his long fingers doing the grapevine but never tripping. A smaller boy sitting a few seats up slowly works the scales. Polanski comes to the smaller boy and tells him sitting correctly will improve his playing.

"Use your weight and lean forward," she says, gently lifting his arms so his hands are immediately above the keys, and his fingers come down on them from above, rather than his slumped palms and fingers that weakly tap at keys.

"Some of you are still missing notes in your repertoire," she says.

The students will play their repertoire for a mid-term grade. They perform for their classmates and Polanski will grade them. This class is their last chance for guided practice with her.

"That note is a signal to you to play in a certain place," she says.

During the second term, these students will compose an original piece of music. A compilation of the works will go on a CD that the PTA will sell. This year's theme is "Together we can."

Polanski's next class is music theory. Students work with pencil and paper as much as keyboards in this class. Intervals, augmented and diminished, take center stage.

Angela Powell, 13, gets the system of going from smallest to largest. "It was kind of confusing, but then I found a pattern," she says.

Some of her classmates are still confused, while other students are working at advanced levels.

"There's a lot of discipline in this," Polanski says.

She instructs her students to be careful about cleft signs and leaving out the staff.

"The more you master this," she says, "the less time you need to read directions."

‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T'
The dozen fine-arts teachers at Power APAC are all professional artists. Besides being certified educators, they act in theater productions, play in the symphony, give recitals at Millsaps College, and exhibit in galleries and museums.

While Polanski has been with the school the longest, many of the other fine-arts teachers have been there a long time as well. Elizabeth Sullivan, chairwoman of the dance department, has been with the school 18 years. Dorian Myers, 32, has taught theater at Power APAC for nine years, her entire career.

Most evenings, the teachers are either performing or working on their own art in addition to preparing for class. A group of them stand near the front door to guide the middle-school students back to the buses to begin their academic day, and they talk about plans for the evening. One is rehearsing with the symphony; another is working on a play.

"I'm having a one-woman show in my living room," Myers says. On that jovial note, the teachers break up and go back to their rooms.

Shawn Morgan, a vocal music teacher, spends her evenings rehearsing students for various productions. She is enthusiastic and optimistic until someone mentions possible similarities to the TV show "Glee."

"I don't have time to watch television," she says with a stern look.

Down the hall, in the auditorium, voices drift out in the hallway. The doors are closed, and about 20 students sit quietly in the audience. On stage, four girls belt out a familiar tune, pointing at each other and strutting, trying to out-sass each other.

"R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me."

It's the kind of moment that makes visitors smile. This happened the first time Nancy Smylie, a teacher's assistant, visited Power APAC as a substitute teacher last year. She loved the energy of the teachers and the well-behaved students.

"This year, I have been blessed to have a position with the school. To be able to come to this atmosphere five days a week is a huge blessing," she says. "This is not a job. It is a privilege and a gift."

One moment she remembers vividly was walking outside during recess on a warm fall day. She found a young man playing his cello under the shade of an oak tree. She stood and listened to him play, enchanted with the moment.

"I mean, where else do you see that?" she asks.

‘Grapevine'
Elizabeth Sullivan's 2 p.m. ballet class is about to begin. As the teens from Murrah High School enter, they stop to watch a video of Power APAC students in a modern dance performance at Millsaps last year. Long arms on a dozen girls sway and grow longer as they glide forward then back.

"We did that yesterday," a student points out. "I chasséd across the floor." He then exaggerates the move, smiling at himself in the walls of mirrors.

"Stop acting a fool," another student says. "Drama class is down the hall."

A tall girl takes new pointe shoes out of a box and shows them to Sullivan. A new pair can cost $40 to $80, plus $20 for toe pads. The ribbon is another $4 or so. The girl, wearing leotards and tights, sits on a tall stool and quietly sews the ribbons into the sides of her new shoes. She'll wear out at least two pairs this year. If she has another growth spurt, she'll need still another pair for her growing feet. Her long, dark hair hangs down as she concentrates on her stitches in the expensive shoes.

Dance is divided into eight levels at Power APAC, and three different types of dance class: ballet, jazz and modern. Sullivan has seen the same students grow and improve as dancers for years. Last year, two of her students received scholarships to the summer intensive program at Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, Calif.

Christiana Jefferson, 15, was one of them. Jefferson is in ninth grade and in level 7 of the dance program. She's been studying dance at Power APAC since she was in fifth grade. She badly wanted to attend in fourth grade but on the day of the audition, she was sick and couldn't go. She missed her chance that year. Luckily, a rare spot opened for her the next year, and she made that audition. As a fifth grader, she was a level 1 student. Jefferson prefers modern dance.

"Modern is really free. It's movement where it's not about technique. Without forethought, you use your space intuitively; you make shapes," she says. "You don't want to look silly. You want to incorporate some technique."

She explains that's why ballet class is so important—"it's the foundation"—and looks at Sullivan, who nods and smiles.

Jefferson gets up at 6:15 a.m. every school day. Her first class is AP biology at 8:15 a.m, followed by more AP classes. She had a tuna sandwich and some grapes and strawberries for lunch today. When she gets out of dance class at 3:30 p.m. she's headed straight home.

"I'm going to take a nap and rest my body," she says. After her nap, she'll do her AP homework and go to bed around 10 p.m. Then she'll get up and do it all again.

Jefferson is already planning for college. She wants to attend the University of Southern Mississippi. She says she heard through the grapevine the instructors are great.

"I want to do something formal with real instructors who have a degree," she says. That's been her experience at Power APAC, and she says she knows that's important.

Professionally, she'd like to dance with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.

Danielle Sims, 16, also went to Idyllwild last summer. The 11th grader is in level 8 of the dance program, the highest level. She's been dancing with Power APAC since she was in the fourth grade.

"I love it. They've trained me up to be a beautiful dancer," she says, right before her modern dance class begins. "It's a release from the day and school work."

Besides studying and dancing, Sims works 15 to 20 hours a week at Steak Escape in Northpark Mall. She also is a cheerleader. Time management was one of her earliest lessons.

"It takes a lot of maturity," she says. "I started dancing when I was 3. Being able to balance your schedule is important."

Some of her Murrah classmates don't realize the work and dedication studying dance takes, she says. Some of them assume she's taking fun, easy classes at Power APAC.

"We get a grade in here," she says, arching her eyebrows. An instructor assesses every move she makes at the barre or on the floor.

Like other students at Power APAC, Sims already has college plans cooking. "UCLA has an awesome program," she says.

Sims wants to major in dance and minor in nursing so she can learn about dance-related injuries. One day, she would like to open her own chain of dance studios.

"I want to come back here and establish it," she says. She thinks a lot of dance classes in the Jackson area focus on drill teams and don't offer enough structure.

In the middle of the floor, she stands with her classmates in second position, slowly rising on her toes, lifting her arms to window and the sky.

Just outside the modern-dance class, music students arrange stands and chairs then move them again. It's a warm fall afternoon, and they try to decide if they want the shade or the sun. They rearrange the chairs.

Just behind them, visual arts students are standing outside their classroom trailers. Some are holding drawings and paintings and others are shooting photographs.

"Try to focus," their instructor, Martha Hamburg, directs. "Try again. You want to just focus."

Hamburg is guiding her high-school students who are compiling their portfolios. They will submit a digital portfolio for consideration for college credit. It's another AP class, as demanding and particular as the academic advanced-placement courses.

Students include 12 works showing their breadth of work and another 12 focusing on their area of concentration. Hamburg wants them to get an early start on the portfolios, which are due at the end of the year.

"If we just waited until then, it would be a disaster. Twenty-four pieces in a year is a lot," Hamburg says.

She advises Joshua Hairston, 17, to stay in the shade and not to use flash for even lighting while documenting his classmates' work. Later today, Hamburg will teach a darkroom technique class, covering black-and-white toning.

Meanwhile, the musicians have arranged their chairs and stands comfortably facing each other under an oak tree. They are the strings. They each practice different tunes on their violins. One of them strums a cello as a few leaves dance in the breeze.

Interested in the art scene? Love to listen to music with a local flair? Head over to the Events page to find local listings of art shows, music concerts, and more! Also, if you know of any local scene that we're missing, add it to Jackpedia, the collaborative wiki for fun stuff in Jackson.

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