Our Alice Is the Best and We’ve Got Proof

We at The Straz and the Patel Conservatory know Alice Santana is the best. It’s always nice, though, when others notice as well. Alice, The Straz’s vice president of education and community engagement, has won the Cognia Excellence in Education Award for 2023. Cognia is an independent non-profit organization that accredits primary and secondary schools... Continue Reading →

Decade of Dance

Houston Ballet Academy graduates and current Corps de Ballet dancers Neal Burks as Basilio and Magnoly Batista as Kitri in Houston Ballet Academy's Ben Stevenson's Don Quixote. Photo by Amitava Sarkar (2019). Courtesy of Houston Ballet. Neal Burks was a promising young dancer in 2013. Ten years on, that promise is being fulfilled. But for... Continue Reading →

Staff Keeps Patel Students Coming and Going Safely

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Snow and gloom shouldn’t be issues but rain and heat? Hoo boy. Pictured: a typical summer day in the great state of Florida. The Patel Conservatory staff members (“these couriers”) responsible for couriering summer... Continue Reading →

ARTISTS WE LOVE: Lorraine Hansberry

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Groundbreaking playwright Lorraine Hansberry drew the title of her most famous work – A Raisin in the Sun – from the powerful poem Harlem, written by Langston Hughes about the promise of freedom in the Emancipation Proclamation remaining a... Continue Reading →

Guest Instructors Offer ‘Real Life’ Lessons To Patel Students

Patel Conservatory classrooms sometimes play host to Broadway actors, Grammy®-winning musicians and world-renowned dancers. These performers aren’t there to sign autographs. They’re in the classrooms and studios to share their knowledge and experience with Patel students. Guest instructor Beth Gibbs, associate professor of music and director of choral studies at Florida Southern College, leading a... Continue Reading →

TALKING WITH … Alice Santana, Interim Director of Education and Community Engagement

Recently appointed to the position of interim director of education and community engagement, Straz staffer Alice Santana has a lifelong love of the arts and deep-rooted passion to make an impact in her community.  Her journey with the Straz Center began in January 2016 when she was hired to work in the Patel Conservatory as the student affairs and community relations coordinator. As she flourished... Continue Reading →

Pardon My French

The French codified ballet under King Louis XIV by defining the five basic positions of the feet and setting a catalog of positions related to the “turn-out” of the legs in the hip sockets (i.e., the legs rotate out of the hips instead of facing forward). Placement, a.k.a. alignment, and lift, a.k.a. pull-up, became fundamentals... Continue Reading →

DIY Mad Lib Movie Star Activity

We are all Zooming so much these days that we’re practically movie stars. The Patel Conservatory Theater Department has turned one of their favorite improv activities into a Zoom theater game to play with family or friends. What You’ll Need: 2 or more players Writing utensil Something to write on Electronic devices with Wi-Fi Roles:... Continue Reading →

DIY Instrument Making at Home for You and the Kids

The music chair at the Patel Conservatory, Dr. Lauren Murray, shows you fun, simple instructions for how to make your own instruments using household objects. Today we’re offering up an activity of note where you can conduct an experiment of symphonic proportions. We invited Lauren Murray, chamber musician extraordinaire and the music chair of the... Continue Reading →

DIY Playwriting at Home for You and the Kids

The Straz Center’s senior writer gives you fun, simple instructions on how to write a script you can produce, direct, perform and film at home. Hello, everybody! Marlowe Moore here, the Straz Center senior writer, with a step-by-step guide for writing a script with kids from middle school to high school. You can easily adapt... Continue Reading →

Wiggle Room

The Straz Center’s Wee Folk series is designed specifically for the toddler set. Welcome to the room where wiggling is allowed. You may not know this, but on the ground floor behind Morsani Hall, we have a large, tall rehearsal room that regularly sees Opera Tampa rehearsals, ballet classes, chamber music practices and the occasional special event. However, three... Continue Reading →

Girl Power

The Straz Center arts education partnerships program with Tampa’s The Centre for Girls In addition to our many performances, lectures, classes and workshops, the Straz Center hosts a super cool outside-of-the-spotlight arts education partnership program which brings us into fruitful, fun and inspiring relationships with many organizations around the area. This semester, one of our... Continue Reading →

Let’s ROCK

Meet classically-trained Philly pop punk rocker Kevin Sitaras, director of the Patel Conservatory’s super popular Rock School. Rock School at the Patel Conservatory puts together people who want to be in a rock band. The drummer may be a 65-year-old retiree, the guitarist a seventh-grader, the lead singer a recent transplant working her first professional... Continue Reading →

Together, Wherever We Go

The Straz Arts Education’s Broadway Buddies program unites kids from different learning backgrounds. A little bit exchange program, a little bit Big Brother/Big Sister, a little bit theater boot camp and a lot of laughs – that describes the remarkable new program launched by Acting Director of Community Engagement and Education Programs Alice Santana and... Continue Reading →

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