If you’re looking for a Michigan school for performing arts that’s both public and in Southeast Michigan, you’ll find it at Arts Academy in the Woods (AAW).
Located in a tranquil, tree-lined neighborhood in Fraser, AAW offers a unique arts-integrated curriculum. Their extensive arts program is combined with a solid academic curriculum that includes math, science, social studies, English, languages, and health and wellness.
And the icing on the cake? AAW is a charter school that’s free to any high school student in Michigan, mostly drawing students from Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.
More Than Just a Michigan School for Performing Arts
While Arts Academy in the Woods offers an array of studies in the performing arts, the arts curriculum also includes creative writing, as well as digital and visual arts.
The goal at AAW is to provide excellence in integrated arts and academic education with high standards that challenge all students. And they reach that goal every day. This is what makes it one of the best performing arts schools in Michigan.
AAW is a unique educational experience that prepares students for post-secondary and vocational success with a lifelong appreciation for art and learning. Educators embrace continuous learning with a passion for their content and the arts, while incorporating life skills and character development. They truly prepare their graduates to pursue the highest level of success in their post-secondary artistic, academic, vocational, and community lives.
The learning environment is one that embodies a safe and healthy physical and emotional space to promote inclusion and respect for individuality and diversity. Each student is regarded as an artist and is given freedom of choice and self-expression, with frequent opportunities to their showcase talents.
Yet, academics are also stressed. They’re just taught through the arts.
The Curriculum Makes AAW One of the Best Performing Arts High Schools
With a fully integrated arts and academic curriculum, Arts Academy in the Woods caters to artistically-inclined students by integrating arts into academics. And for students who hope to move onto college, the curriculum also caters to that.
Among the performing arts offerings are the following:
1. Acting
Actors at AAW work on formal critiques, improvisation, monologues, dialogues, poetry performances, and the creation of original works. They use literary and historical contexts to deepen the understanding of a character.
The acting curriculum also stresses the vocabulary of the stage and the importance of learning to perform and make choices on stage. Students learn the physical aspects and management of the stage, and how to be comfortable with all aspects involved in putting on a full production.
2. Vocal Music
For teens with a strong singing voice and an even stronger dream of being at a performing arts high school, AAW is the place to be. Through their vocal music program, singers focus on both music theory and sight-reading music. They work to achieve and maintain a high level of musicianship, leadership, responsibility, and respectable character. And unlike private high schools, no prior singing experience is required for survey classes.
Vocalists work daily on their class music in preparation for performances at civic, cultural, and educational activities during the school year.
3. Instrumental Music
It’s difficult to make it in the world of music without first gaining a foundation. Aspiring musicians at AAW explore the fundamentals of playing music. From an introduction to the basic chords and scales to advanced reading music, and grasping music theory.
Students also learn to analyze and critique their sound and performances regularly. And those who are college-bound are supported in their preparation for scholarship and acceptance auditions for universities and conservatories.
4. Dance
The dance curriculum at Art Academy in the Woods aligns with what students will experience at the college level – with a focus on technique, performance, and choreography. Dance majors are typically enrolled in several sections of technique and/or repertoire at various levels.
The Ease of Learning Academics Through Art
AAW is the perfect place for students who excel in the arts but may be struggling with STEM-focused education. At the academy, they learn standard academic subjects but in a completely different way.
For example, AAW may teach social studies (i.e. history, geography, economics, and civics) through art by studying art movements during specific eras. In this way, students learn the importance of taking action on local, national, and global issues. They practice critical thinking skills that encourage informed civic action while gaining tools to understand human behavior, culture, and development.
Meanwhile, science instructors stress the intrinsic understanding of how science changes the way we view everything, including art and music. A student can have a new experience of art when learning how eyes see color. Or they may have a deeper understanding of music when they understand sound waves.
AAW teaches academic subject this way – be it science, math, social studies, English, or second languages.
Finally, through the school’s health and wellness curriculum, students are encouraged to learn essential life skills that extend beyond (while also lending to) their art. These include skills that maintain physical, mental, emotional, and academic wellness – with an added emphasis on mental health.
Ready to See What Arts Academy in the Woods Can Offer Your Child?
Now that know all about a stellar Michigan school for performing arts that’s also public, we hope you’ll consider how it could benefit your artistically inclined child.
Don’t hesitate to contact us so you can request a tour of Arts Academy in the Woods in Fraser, Michigan.
We look forward to meeting you… and our next remarkable student.