TCA ADS recognizes performance arts as an important aspect of culture and thus strives to offer its students the opportunity to develop their artistic skills and talent.
Performers in the 2011 Christmas Celebration
Dance
TCA Arshag Dickranian School appreciates the important role dance plays in the development of children’s performance skills and artistic abilities. Elementary level students take structured classes every week in which they are taught to perform dances from a variety of cultures, including Armenian folkdance.
The school dance group has received special invitations to participate in events held by various organizations, such as TCA Los Angeles Chapter, Armenian Diocese Center and Ararat Home in the previous years. Shows and performances are continuously planned.
Choir
Directed by Mr. Komitas Keshisian, a graduate of The Yerevan Conservatory in Armenia with a Master’s Degree in Music, the school choir is comprised of 50 talented students ranging from first to eighth grade. The students are exposed to different kinds of music, including Armenian music, and they perform during school and church functions. The school choir has mastered the hymns of the Armenian Church and The Holy Mass. The school choir received two special invitations to perform for his holiness Karakin the II at The Beverly Hilton Hotel and St. John’s Church during his two visits to the United States.
A scene from the production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Theater Arts
Theater Arts was added to the Arshag Dickranian curriculum in order to foster the knowledge that dramatic art, history, writing, literature and the adaptation of classic and contemporary plays from various national repertories. Students are introduced to theater arts through improvisational exercises, stage movement, dance, expression, voice, speech work and imagination strategies. These promote creativity, confidence, discipline, teamwork and an array of additional academic and psychological benefits. The study of the iambic pentameter, Shakespeare and poetry recitation is also emphasized. Students perform plays from ancient Greek, Mayan, 17th Century British, 18th Century French, as well as 20th and 21st Century American Literature.
