Amber Pickens is one of the latest outstanding students to excel in the arts at Booker T. Washington High School. Congratulations!
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Dancer Also Awarded Fellowship to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater School for Summer Studies in New York
Amber Pickens
Dallas, Texas - Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts senior/dance cluster student Amber Pickens has been admitted to The Juilliard School for the 2011-2012 academic year. She is one of 12 females extended an invitation for admission out of their entire worldwide applicant pool. Amber will study in the Dance Division as part of their four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts program that includes a Liberal Arts curriculum.
The Juilliard School is considered as one of the most prestigious performing arts conservatories in the world. Amber has also been awarded a fellowship with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater School. She will participate in the Ailey Fellowship Program in New York this summer beginning on June 20, 2011 through August 1, 2011 before beginning her first year at The Juilliard School.
Says Amber, "I can't believe it! I was on Spring Break last week when I got the call from Katie Friis, Dance Admissions Coordinator at Juilliard. When she said I was in...I couldn't talk or move. I was so excited. Getting accepted to Juilliard is a dream come true for me. When I did the audition back in February, after all the cuts I was the last female dancer standing with three male dancers from Houston and North Carolina. Out of all the females, I was the only one to finish the audition. That alone was exciting and unbelievable for me. But actually getting the call that I made it...well that's incredible! This is truly a blessing."
As a student at Booker T. Washington HSPVA, Amber has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the award as a Texas Young Master of the Arts by the Texas Commission on the Arts during her freshman year. The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts recognized Amber as a YoungArts 2011 Honorable Mention Winner for her exceptional artistic achievement in Modern and African dance. She made her acting debut as the Fairy Moth in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the inaugural production of the Dallas Theater Center at the Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas. Amber is also featured in advertisements across the country as part of the national marketing campaign for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She is featured in the ad as the ballerina princess making the wish come true for a little girl by crowning her a princess too.
Amber will make her final curtain call on Booker T. Washington's Montgomery Arts Theater stage during Dance Festival Week scheduled for April 4 - 8, 2011. Under the direction of Lily Weiss, Dance Cluster Coordinator, she will direct her senior choreography work for the Best of Senior Choreography Concert and she will perform as a member of the Repertory Dance Company I for the Ensemble Concert.
