Audie Gemora’s new school combines academics with arts

MANILA, Philippines -It’s an idea whose time has come. Even while he was training young talents in summer workshops, Trumpets founder and Stages president, multi-awarded stage actor and director Audie Gemora always had this vision of a full-blown school that integrates a regular academics school with a progressive arts program.

“After one month and a half of the musical theater summer workshop, the students would hold a recital and that was it,” Audie relates. “They’d then enroll in a traditional school, and the values of an arts education would be lost.”

The parents wished that the summer workshops could be extended year round. Thus came about the idea of a school, the Talent School of Academics and Arts (TSAA).

While the Department of Education’s K-12 content standards —which specify the minimum competencies in all the core content areas: Science, Math, Language, and Social Sciences — guide TSAA’s “holistic and progressive curriculum, parallel to the academics would be the art subjects such as dance, literature, theater, visual arts, and music,” Gemora explains. “In the middle of these two pillars is our Art Integration program where we use
the arts to teach the subjects.”

To illustrate, school principal Cherry Napala, who holds a master’s degree in Education from the University of Melbourne in Australia, gives this example: Suppose the lesson is about the solar system. The children are not only shown pictures of the sun and the planets, but are also encouraged to act it out, moving like the heavenly bodies, and in the process, learning about rotation, revolution, and even about gravity.

“They are not only given facts to memorize but are made to understand the concepts.  It’s experiential understanding,” Gemora adds. “They can learn history through theater, or music and dance, for example. The possibilities are endless.” This multi-sensory approach acknowledges individual learning differences and nurtures the various intelligences: linguistic, logical, mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

“It calls for the development of both sides of the brain. It merges the dichotomy of left brain and right brain thinking,” Gemora observes. “This is the 21st century. We are no longer in the Industrial Age, which required the learning of skills. We now have a knowledge economy, which calls for creative thinking.”
Gemora draws from his own personal experience. He was an underachiever at the International School where he studied, until a history teacher plucked him out from the choir and made him the star of a school play, Oklahoma. The moment he stepped on stage, he felt a surge of self-confidence. He discovered his talent. He not only stepped out of his shell, he excelled. He also found his mission.

Graduates from My Talent summer workshops, now in its fifth year under the supervision of Gemora, are one in recognizing the positive change it has made in their lives. The workshops “focus on the discovery and honing of an individual’s
God-given talents.”

Mentors represent the best in the field such as Rissa Mananquil-Trillo, who handles the Commercial Modeling program. The former president of the Professional Models Association is a resident judge and runway coach of the upcoming TV show Top Model Philippines. Other workshops offered include Musical Theater, Street Dance, Photography, Guitar and Pop Performance.

The time has come for Gemora’s vision of a progressive school to come to life. He partnered with like-minded individuals who share his vision. Vilma Moredo, mother of two, was a founding member of the small group of parents “in search of a school which would not only have its students compare favorably with students of the best schools in the country in standardized academic tests, but will also strategically help the student identify, develop, and harness his/her unique set of talents.” She’s on board as Gemora’s business partner and school administrator.

Dr. Evalyn de Guzman Hizon, a professor for 39 years at the University of the Philippines and currently part-time lecturer at the University of Asia and the Pacific, lays the academic foundation for TSAA. She specializes in Child Development, Family Life, Early Childhood Education, especially in the areas of curriculum development, management, and administration of Child Development  Centers, teacher-training for teachers of preschool and the early grades.

Emmy Cayabyab is the fourth member in TSAA’s core group. A cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Music degree, major in  choral conducting, Cayabyab has taught music to high school students and done one back-up vocals for  noted local pop singers and recordings of advertising jingle, as well as theater as an actress for musicals and TV musical shows. She shares her knowledge in music mostly with youths and at special parish and community activities.

While scouting for a place to house the school, Gemora met entrepreneur and industrial designer Edwin Ayroso, who owns the building where TSAA finally found a home. When he was younger, Ayroso also wanted to build a school. So impressed was he with TSAA’s vision that he decided to join the venture.  The building, located at 1157 Chino Roces Ave. in Makati, will house the pre-school and kindergarten on the first floor; grades 1–6 on the second floor; junior high school and senior high school on the third and fourth floors; the library and laboratories on the fifth floor; and the gym
and multi-purpose hall for performances on the sixth floor.

The faculty is composed of experienced teachers in child education who will also receive special training from experts in the arts such as Jan Blanco from the renowned family of artists from Angono, as well as from graduates of the Conservatory of Music of the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas.

“You cannot afford to lose time,” school principal Cherry says. “It’s best to start when they are young.  It would be difficult to undo wrong approaches later on. At TSAA, the students are not just a pool of faces. We focus on the uniqueness of each child.”

For Audie Gemora, he has come “full circle,” he says. He’d like his son to have the opportunities he himself might have missed had it not been for a kind teacher who recognized his unique talent early on.

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TSAA is located at 1157 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City. For information, call 511-0403, 808-8051, 09225916060, e-mail tsaa2012@yahoo.com. or www.tsaa.com.ph.