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Words by Stacey Bowers / Photography by Alex Kent
- May 8, 2018
- 3 min
The Right Steps: Dance Transforms at Mabelvale Middle
Inside the portable classroom that serves as a dance studio at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School in southwest Little Rock, Kimeka Williams’ advanced dance students buzz with excitement. Today they’re unpacking a new set of jazz shoes that Ms. Williams acquired through Thea’s Art Closet, a program of the Thea Foundation that provides arts materials to classrooms across the state. Energetic, smiling teenagers stretch and move independently in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirrors,

Words by Stacey Bowers / Photography by Alex Kent
- Nov 20, 2017
- 4 min
Self-Constructive: Working with Power Tools Builds Confidence in Parkview Students
The stage at Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School is abuzz two weeks before the opening of the school’s fall play, Arsenic and Old Lace. Stage left, on a French-inspired settee, a student uses a needle and thread to touch up seams in a costume. Stage right, another student brushes gold paint onto a false wall to create the illusion of patterned wallpaper. Near the middle of the stage, a group of young men takes down a large rectangle of wood painted to resemble a wind
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