(upbeat music) - Cottonwood High School is launching the Cottonwood Academy of Performing Arts, giving students the chance to specialize in theater, music or dance.

Joining us with more is artistic director Madison Howell.

Hi, Madison.

- Hi.

- This is so exciting.

I didn't have this in high school, and I think it would've been such a great opportunity for me as an arts person.

So tell us how this came about.

- That's exactly the point.

That's the idea, we were hearing from students and from their families that they wanted an ability to specialize more in their performing arts and dedicate more of their time in school to the performing arts, and we thought this would be an excellent time.

- So how did you come to decide which areas of study to offer?

- We have excellent faculty at Cottonwood High School in the performing arts, and so each of them sort of pitched what they wanted to do and we decided on the five tracks of technical theater, theater performance, dance, instrumental music, and vocal music.

- All right, so you were saying it's brand new this year.

- Brand new this year, yes.

- So how many students do you have participating?

- Currently, we have about 92 already, so big and growing.

(person laughing) - So this is something that students opt into?

Is it an extra cost, like sports?

- Absolutely no cost is associated with CAPA.

They enroll in Cottonwood High School and join this program.

- [Laura] So what are you hearing from parents?

- So far they're really loving it.

They're loving that their kids get to be surrounded by peers who share a certain passion as them.

And my role is mainly to make sure that they are still academically succeeding while focusing on the performing arts, so that their parents are really liking that as well.

- Yeah, is this meant to help maybe prepare them for more of a focus in college?

Like how do you look at that?

- It definitely can.

It definitely would give them a good leg up when they go into college, but it's not just for students who want to go to college in performing arts or do it as a career, it's for students who wanna do anything.

Any student who's passionate about this, the skills that they learn in the performing arts are applicable across the board.

Things like teamwork and building their confidence, things like that.

- Oh, that's amazing.

Well, I'm so glad this new program is getting off to a good start.

And thank you for sharing it with us.

- Thank you so much.

- If you would like to learn more about this CAPA program, the Cottonwood Academy of Performing Arts, simply visit granitecapa.com.

That's graniteCAPA.com.

I'm Laura, thank you for watching Contact.

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