Open the curtains and cue up the lights because it’s time to take the stage!
After an intensive two week program, over 200 Berkeley County School District fine arts students put on a fabulous Summer STEP Finale. Performing for friends and family, students from five artistic disciplines - music, theater, visual arts, dance and creative writing - dazzled audiences and showcased their amazing art and written work.
STEP stands for “special talent enrichment program.” Starting in third grade, students are identified as gifted and talented in the arts through an audition process and entered into the program. Students can audition for multiple disciplines.
By being in STEP, they can attend six STEP sessions on Saturdays throughout the school year and Summer STEP for two weeks in June. Both events are hosted at Goose Creek High, which is also the home of BCSD’s fine arts magnet program – Berkeley Center for the Arts.
“I want them to continue to grow their passion for their skill, their art, their area, their discipline,” Sarah Red, one of Summer STEP’s two lead instructors, said. “We want them to fall in love even more with what they already do, and we also want to encourage them to continue growing.”
Students were pushed outside of their artistic comfort zones multiple times over the course of the eight-day summer program. For example, instrumental students were required to sing with the choral students for the STEP Music showcase, theater students performed Broadway showtunes, dancers choreographed their own numbers, visual art students dabbled in poetry and the list goes on.
“We’ve really got them dipping into the other arts and trying to show them that even though all of our arts are different they’re still all connected and that no one art is more important than the other,” Red said.
Students also enjoyed the challenge of expanding upon their craft.
Sometimes this growth came in the form of technical knowledge, like dancer Macie Clever learning more about the foot positions in ballet or vocal student Rhune Doggett experimenting with acapella songs during a Beatles music medley with the upper choral group.
For other students, growth came in the form of mastering soft skills. Theater student Alysia Reyes appreciated learning how to help others effectively and collaborating with other students who had different skill levels.
Meanwhile, visual art student Queen Beauford had to practice patience.
“In my mind, I have set amount of what I want to get done, but then the paint has to dry, stuff has to settle…and I just want to get going,” Beauford said. This was an understandable frustration since Beauford completed five or six works over the course of Summer STEP.
Undeniably, one of the most treasured aspects of the program is the friendships and bonds students make with other fine arts students across the district.
“We come in here on the first day and it’s like, ‘Oh! Good to see you!’” Richard Blanchard, Coordinator of Gifted and Talented, AP, IB and World Language, said. “It’s like they’re long lost friends, but it’s kind of cool when they see each other again and they pick right back up where they left off.”
Being surrounded by other students following their artistic pursuits inspired and motivated Evelyn Wang to finish a creative writing story for the first time ever! Creative Writing was offered at Summer STEP for the first time this year, and therefore it was a pretty small group, but Wang raved about the experience.
“I think it was the environment that was really nice because you have everybody focused around you and then people are very open about sharing ideas or encouraging you on what they liked [about your story],” Wang said. “It was a lot of fun and I’d like to go next year, too.”
It was clear watching the students perform during their showcases and creating art with their families that they were having a blast. Beauford hopes the STEP students continue to pursue that feeling further.
“I just want them to keep on creating and keep on being inspired and just never give up their craft because art is fun, especially whenever you have imagination and freedom to do whatever you choose.”