Dallas’ Top Performing Arts School Makes You Want to be a Teenager Again

A visit to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is the kind of experience that will make you wish you could turn back the clock and be a teenage co-ed once more.

The preeminent arts magnet school in Dallas is renowned for being a highly competitive hub of talent, with student artists specializing in a range of art forms, from painting and sculpture, to ballet and jazz, theater and classical music.

The school has famously turned out a bold-faced roster of talent, including alumni the likes of Erykah Badu and Norah Jones. And while visiting the Booker T. campus on any given day is an artful treat, one night trumps all: Flyinghorse.

This year, Amy Hofland and Tara Lewis co-chaired the annual performance event and fundraiser, which began with a pre-show cocktail at The Artisan at the soon to open Hall Arts Hotel. Post cocktails, guests walked a block through the Dallas Arts District to the school’s Montgomery Arts Theater.

What ensued was a multi-faceted, student-produced performance that included video, dance, musical theater acts, and a few acapella serenades — including one to the evening’s honoree, Charles Santos.

The grand finale was one for the record books: Booker T. alumni Cedric Neal sang “Can I Close the Door” from Motown: The Musical. And with his last note, a parade of students in caps and gowns sauntered into the seats and on to the stage singing Kool & The Gang’s “Celebrate.”

Confetti fell from the ceiling — and for the first time since high school, we felt like teenagers again.

PC Seen: Brian Bolke and Faisal Halum, Corrie Strosnider, Elizabeth Farrell, Joyce Goss, Josie and Carl Sewell, Sheryl and Eric Maas, Mimi Sterling, Marjon Henderson, and Tim Adair.