Cadence is a conservatory-style academy for artistically driven teenagers — grades 7 through 12 — who train seriously in dance, music, theatre, or visual art while a full college-prep program runs underneath. The stage is not a club here. It's the curriculum.
Auditions are scheduled by phone. We talk first — then we book the room.
A student declares a primary discipline at audition and trains in it daily, with secondary studies across the other three. No discipline is a sideshow — each has its own faculty, its own studios, and its own stage.
A daily technique class at the barre, then repertory, partnering, and composition. Dancers build the body and the eye to perform a full evening-length work by graduation.
Private studio lessons paired with theory, ear training, and ensemble. From first chair to first composition, students leave reading, hearing, and writing the language fluently.
Scene study, voice and movement, and a full producing season. Actors and designers build a body of staged work — not a reel of monologues — before they ever apply to a program.
A studio-art track that ends in a real portfolio and a public exhibition. Students work the way working artists do — long projects, critique, and the wall on opening night.
Most arts programs are an after-school hour bolted to a normal timetable. Cadence is built the other way around: the studio block is the spine of the day, protected and faculty-led, with academics scheduled around it rather than the reverse.
That structure is the whole point. It's what lets a fourteen-year-old log the repetitions a craft actually takes — and what lets the same student walk into a college audition with a body of finished, performed, exhibited work behind them.
Two protected hours of discipline training every school day, taught by faculty who still work in the field.
Every term ends on a stage or a wall. Students rehearse toward real audiences, not a final grade.
Weekly critique and coaching teach students to see their own work honestly — the skill that outlasts any single piece.
Senior year is a directed runway: reels, portfolios, and audition packages built with faculty who sit on the other side of those tables.
Our faculty are not retired from their art — they're in the middle of it. They tour, they exhibit, they get cast, and they bring that week's reality straight into the studio.
DanceChair of Dance
MusicDirector of Music
TheatreHead of Theatre
Visual ArtStudio Art Lead
Cadence is always a few weeks from an opening. Students don't wait for senior year to perform — they're on a real stage, in front of a real house, from the first term they arrive.
01An evening of repertory and student-choreographed work under full stage lighting.
02A fully produced book musical — cast, pit, crew, and design all from inside the building.
03Soloists, combos, and ensembles across two weeks of concert-hall recitals.
04Graduating portfolios mounted as a public show, with an opening night and artist talks.
You can't train a performer in a converted classroom. Cadence is purpose-built: sprung floors, a fly-equipped theatre, sound-treated practice rooms, and a gallery wired for a real opening.
A 320-seat house with a fly system, full lighting grid, and orchestra pit.
Six dance studios with sprung floors, barres, and wall-to-wall mirrors.
A concert-grade recital hall plus sound-isolated private practice rooms.
A flexible black-box theatre for scene work, devising, and new plays.
Daylit studios and an exhibition gallery wired for opening nights.
Digital art, printmaking, and design workstations with large-format output.
An arts academy that lets academics slide isn't doing its students any favors. Cadence runs a full, honest college-preparatory program — small classes, real labs, AP and honors tracks — taught with the same seriousness as the studio.
The art and the academics are not in competition. The discipline a student learns at the barre or in the practice room is the same discipline that shows up in an essay draft or a problem set.
Accredited college-preparatory curriculum · graduates place into BFA, conservatory, and liberal-arts programs.
English, math, science, history & world language, every year, grades 7–12.
Advanced coursework for students who want both the studio and the seminar.
Academic classes capped small enough that no one hides in the back.
Dedicated counseling for arts conservatories, BFA programs, and academic universities alike.
Admission is by audition or portfolio review, not by paperwork alone. The process is rigorous but human — it starts with a phone call, and a real person on our side walks the family through it.
A conversation about the student's discipline, experience, and goals — and which audition track fits. This is where it begins.
We send discipline-specific requirements — repertoire, monologues, a portfolio brief — and a faculty contact to answer questions.
An in-person audition or portfolio review with the discipline faculty, a short technique class, and a tour of the studios.
A decision, a placement level, and an honest conversation about fit, financial aid, and the road ahead.
Auditions run on a rolling basis through the year. Portfolio reviews are scheduled the same way — by phone.
An audition starts with a fifteen-minute call, not a form. Tell us what your student does and where they want to take it, and we'll set the audition or portfolio review from there.
Admissions line open Mon–Fri, 9am–6pm CT. Prefer to write? Request a portfolio review and we'll call you.
No. We admit serious beginners alongside experienced students — what we look for at audition is potential, work ethic, and genuine appetite for the craft, not a finished résumé.
Every student declares one primary discipline and trains in it daily, with secondary studies across the others. Strong students do sometimes carry a double focus — we talk that through at the audition.
Yes. Cadence is an accredited college-preparatory school with a full academic core, AP and honors tracks, and dedicated college counseling — the studio block sits inside a complete grades 7–12 program.
It depends on the discipline: a prepared piece or two, a short technique class or sample lesson, and for visual art a portfolio review. We send exact requirements after your first call.
Yes. Need-based aid and a limited number of talent awards are available. We'd rather talk it through early than have cost quietly rule a family out — raise it on the first call.
