Angela Amoroso: Championing Ballet and the Arts for Our Kids’ Education

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Angela Amoroso, Founder of Scripps Performing Arts Academy, established in 1987.

Her goal is to provide a creative nurturing environment that instills self-confidence, self-esteem, and teamwork without sacrificing the core values of dance as an art form.

Listen in as Angela discusses why integrating art into the core curriculum, into K-12 education, is more important than ever. In a world of AI, she believes that it’s time to put the A back into STEM—that a STEAM education is the way of the future.

She refers to a study by NASA which aimed to measure creative genius in school-aged children, demonstrated to decline drastically through the years, from 95% at the age of five all the way down to 2% by the age of 31. The performing arts, particularly ballet, can potentially curb these numbers if made a consistent part of a child’s core curriculum.

To this end, she gives her thoughts on maintaining creative genius from childhood to adulthood, and how the skills learned through the performing arts easily carry over into leadership roles. She explains how parents and teachers alike can work together to change mainstream education, to effectively “sell” an arts-focused curriculum that puts students first.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:52] Why it’s so important to integrate art into the core curriculum

●      [06:37] How the NASA study measured creative genius in children

●      [11:34] Building a community of performing arts students

●      [17:01] The importance of having compassion for your little performer

●      [20:12] How Angela chose her career path

●      [24:09] About the Scripps program, Experience the Good

●      [26:36] Four ways Angela’s work has transformed the lives of students

●      [30:25] Incorporating community-based performance into everyday life

●      [31:53] Getting art programs back into education

●      [37:58] How parents can get involved

Key quotes:

●      “The best way to combat artificial intelligence is to become more human.”

●      "Strong mind, strong body. Strong body, strong mind."

Resources:

●      Angela Amoroso on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-amoroso-58231749/

●      Scripps Performing Arts Academy Website: https://scrippsperformingartsacademy.com/

●      Scripps Performing Arts YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ScrippsPerformingArts/videos