The Family Singers and Dancers present a “Music and Dance Festival.” Performed May 18, 2012 at The Family Foundation School.

By Roderick O.

Every year The Family Foundation School chorus takes a trip to Hershey Park to participate in a choral competition.  Whether they bring home a trophy or not, the overall experience is one to remember. With the contest approaching, Paul has been preparing the students for the intense competition. There are 16 kids in the choir and each of them brings something unique. “It’s fantastic, I love the energy and the dancing,” said chorus member Connor S.

In preparation for the Hershey Park Paul has the members learning vocal pedagogy. This entails different types of breathing techniques, phonation, tone quality, posture, vowel shaping and most importantly, discipline. When interviewing Paul he told me that the student energy was super and there was a tremendous amount of focus and energy.

By Ileana A.

The Family School Players did a wonderful job in Night of the Shepherds this past Saturday. The gym was packed with family and friends who definitely got a kick out of the playful jokes made throughout the musical. The cast and crew alike worked well together to make the show run smoothly.

After the show, the actors got together to thank Tim Janis and guest actor, Lars Heglund, for giving them this opportunity to perform in an original musical. Tim, who was in the audience, said, “You all did a fantastic job. You had me crying at some points and laughing at others. This was honestly the best Christmas gift anyone could have given me. Thank you.”

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Today a full house at The Family Foundation School enjoyed the debut performance of Night of the Shepherds by Tim Janis featuring eleven musical numbers performed by the Family School Players with guest performer Lars Valdor Heglund.   The performance, the centerpiece of Family Day at the school, ushered in the holiday season on campus.

By Ileana A.

The Family Foundation School Performing Arts Department will soon be presenting the debut performance of Night of the Shepherds. This Christmas musical was written by Tim Janis, who also composed the songs that the chorus performed last year at Carnegie Hall.

Night of the Shepherds focuses on a side character from the traditional Christmas story who learns a valuable lesson from the miracle of Jesus’ birth. The cast and crew had their first dress rehearsal last Wednesday and are continuing to work hard to make this a remarkable production until the day of. There will also be three beautiful dance numbers performed before the start of the musical. Everyone is eager to share all the hard work that they have put into the show. This is a very special opportunity for everyone involved, especially the actors who will be performing with a professional Broadway actor.

Night of the Shepherds is premiering on Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 2:00pm.

By Ileana A.

Here at The Family Foundation School, professional dancer, Tom Kovaleski, teaches three different dance classes. These are jazz, tap, and ballet. Tom has received dance scholarships in high school and college. He has danced with the North Carolina Dance Theater, and with the California Dance Company and Cincinnati Ballet Company as a soloist. Tom was also the Co-Chairman of the Dance Department at the Florida School of the Arts. After owning and operating two dance studios for 23 years, Tom came to The Family Foundation School to choreograph and direct shows in March of 1998.

Dance classes here are different from traditional dance classes because you have varied amounts of ability from students who come with different backgrounds in dance. With this in mind, Tom’s goal is to teach the basic fundamental techniques keeping in mind proper alignment and structure. Tom says, “It’s only good if you can do it correctly and properly so you don’t get injured.”

This semester’s dance classes will be performing before the upcoming musical on December 10^th. The show starts at 2:00pm, so mark your calendars!

By Judith Reeve

Art Teacher

The root of creativity, I believe, springs from two things- “keen” observation of the natural world as well as of man and secondly, taking note of what lies within oneself at all times. The artist must be an attentive observer of the natural world both of large and small phenomena- the motion of the sun in the sky, the variety of shadows, the color of light and its effect on objects, the feeling for a specific day and time as well as a turn of a leaf, the shape of a twig, the movement of a bird, the feeling expressed in a face- all are part of a larger unity of all things that one only senses when one has seriously taken note of the world in all its manifestations. This intensity of observation is one root to the tree of creativity. The other is being an observer of oneself- those thoughts, dreams and intuitions that come to us in a blast of insight as well as in a quiet whisper. One must take note of those things that strike one in profound and subtle ways. I often think of the quote of St. Augustine in his “Confessions”, “That I might know myself in order to know You”. Only by observing oneself and those inward manifestations that produce insight is one able to be connected to one’s deeper self and, in a way, to all humanity. From this double root springs the tree of creativity that one hopes, with deep longing, will flower.

From this basis, the journal writing class is exploring various natural elements in our environment that they may have overlooked- the caterpillar crossing their path, the maple and ash seeds dangling in the trees, the shape and form of clouds. Besides drawing in various media, the class is exploring the thoughts and insights of artists and writers. These written selections come from artist’s journals and letters as well as from the major works of various writers. The students meditate on these passages in order to formulate their own approach and vision of their work and of themselves. Through this dialogue, I hope they will come to discover the magnificence that surrounds them and be filled with the proper sense of awe that we as humans yearn for.

From the Journal of Will C-J:

“To be an artist is to create,

                To take what was blank,

                And reveal what needs to be seen.

In the same way this is the purpose of

                The art they create.

To take the sleeping observer

                And awaken them to what needs

                To be seen.

The artist turns on the

                Lights”

From the Journal of Celise F.:

…But imagine a world where we are clearly aware of and understand our surroundings. There would be no desire to explore the things we do not see because we had seen all there is to see. I know now that we need that mysterious feeling of not knowing what is hidden…

By Ileana A.

In the one-hundreds wing of The Family Foundation School building, you will find a room filled with brightly colored paintings and dozens of still-life sketches.  Yuri Kuchukov, the art teacher, says, “Art is just as important as math and science because it is about forming another side of intellectuality. Art helps to develop creativity and spirituality. I believe that life is about balance and art balances the intellect.”

In Yuri’s class, students start out by sketching the three universal shapes; the cone, cube, and sphere. Students begin to learn about the composition and construction of a drawing, and how to shade it. Then, the students paint a still life in watercolor. After the still life, the students study impressionism and make their own copies of paintings by artists such as Monet and Van Gogh. Yuri often says that to be a great artist one must learn from the great masters first.

The students then begin drawing a series of facial parts; the mouth, nose, ear, and eye. These are taken from plaster copies of the Statue of David. Students also compose and shade a drawing of a skull. With this background, the art students can finally move on to their self-portrait.

When all of this work is done, art class becomes individualized to the student. Some art students are working on their portfolios for college and need to do special projects. Some would like to explore watercolor in more depth and experiment with different subjects. Still others work on proportions from the human face and body.

Many at The Family Foundation School enjoy Yuri’s art class and go often to relieve stress and anxiety. Art is a healthy way to express emotions and use extra energy in a productive manner instead of using it to get in trouble. Yuri loves teaching the class and looks forward to having more students join.

By Ileana A.

The Family Foundation School welcomed a new art teacher, Judith Reeve, on September 12th, 2011. She works Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and currently has seven students. She also teaches at the Woodstock School of Art.

Judith studied at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Connecticut. The Academy was an atelier and there she studied under the tutelage of artist Deane Keller, famous for his anatomic figure drawings. Judith also studied at the Silvermine Arts Center in Connecticut where she learned about lithography.

This past summer, Judith participated in a residency program at the Plattekill Falls in New York. There she worked on landscape paintings and lived in a rustic cabin for a week. There will be a group show with all the participants’ work in December.

  With artist William Morris as one of her inspirations, Judith’s main goal is to give her students a new way to look at the world. William Morris did a lot work that was inspired by organic forms, incorporating the beauty of nature into tapestries, wallpaper, and prints. Judith would like her students to learn from what the world has already provided and incorporate that into their own work.

Each of Judith’s students has a visual journal in which they record their experiences so that they may become more aware of things that are easy to overlook. She stresses visual acuity; becoming more aware of everyday things will give the students a different type of understanding of the world.

Right now, Judith’s students are learning about natural forms, depicting cattails and milkweeds through drawing and painting. She hopes to start printmaking next semester and wants to introduce more ways to get in touch with the students’ creative sides.