Fine Arts Academy director Dr. Samuel Parrott returned to his choral roots on May 6 when he offered his tenor voice to the collective musical tour de force that was the Choir Masterwork Concert in the MAC.
It wasn’t the first time that the versatile administrator showed off his repertoire of fine arts powers.
On April 26, Parrott joined Fine Arts Academy assistant Tonya Moore, footloose faculty members and some similarly bold students by line dancing in the cafeteria in a frolicking, festive and fearless finale to Fine Arts Week on campus.
“I love having a chance to show that I’m not always about business at work and that I’m willing to put myself out there in the name of fun,” Parrott said.
Putting himself out there is a bit of an understatement in this reporter’s opinion. He was impossible to miss; brandishing his winter holiday Disney sweater (in April) doesn’t exactly scream, “I am just a backup dancer in this production.”
Line dancing at lunch was also Parrott’s master class in administrative multitasking. Never separated from his trusty walkie talkie, Parrot could pivot at any moment from “Cupid Shuffle” to “Break up a Scuffle.” Luckily, the campus behaved well during this lunch period so Parrott could just dance.
While he was a willing participant, he was quick to point out that he was not the prime mover who made the event happen.
“Mrs. Moore is the brains behind the line dancing,” Parrott said. “She is always looking for a way to bring the community together and have some fun at school for the teachers and kids, so she made sure to end the week with some fun.”
Moore explained her thinking in bringing line dancing back after introducing it last year.
“It’s like the movie, ‘Fame’ when no one expects it, but then there’s a dance right in the cafeteria.”
To facilitate the line dancing, Moore asked students to help prepare the song list, and Alex Thomason, Isabella Aleman Ward, Ana Mejia , Kyranise Hose and Paityn Jones were among the Knights who answered the call.
“We are a fine arts school,” Moore said, “and we need more impromptu events like this one. It was fun dancing with the students and getting them involved in something different instead of the same lunch period every day.”
One of the students who embraced the dancing opportunity the Fine Arts Academy offered was freshman Abigail Sands. Wearing a bright pink dress on the Friday in question, she was like Parrott: hard to miss in the line of dancing students and teachers.
Sands did not know there would be line dancing until she glimpsed the crew setting up the speakers. Sands didn’t need advance notice because she is no line dancing novice. She prepared for the line dancing at her sister’s wedding earlier in April by learning the line dances on her playlist including “Footloose,” “Casper Slide,” “Cupid Shuffle,” even a dance for “Every Time We Touch.”
She was able to do an encore to three of those songs in the cafeteria, but she had to put a request in for “Footlose.”
The best part of the experience for Sands was being collectively carefree in the moment.
“I just loved the feeling of going up there and dancing with some of my friends,” Sands said. “I heard a lot of people saying they’d be embarrassed, but I was just thinking, ‘Aw, what the heck? I should go up there! I know these dances!'”
Sands could not isolate a favorite dance from the day, but she did say she enjoyed teaching some of the dances to her adventurous friends who took to the cafeteria stage with her as novices.
“I just liked the overall fun of being up there to dance, but I definitely won.”
And how does one win in non-competitive line dancing?
Without missing a beat, Sands, a near professional line dancer after all, said. “By being the happiest to be there.”
The images in this gallery confirm that assessment. “Won” rhymes with “fun” after all.
She said she “100 percent” hopes that the Fine Arts Academy hosts line dancing again.
Dr. Parrott, Sands’ kindred spirit in bold fashion and bold dancing, shares that assessment, also at an enthusiasm level of 100%.
“I’d love to see more students and teachers take those chances to have fun at school and connect through all of the different activities that go on around McCallum.”
And with that Fine Arts Week mantra boldly stated, MacJ officially completes its mission to cover the weeklong event … exactly one month after it officially ended.
View this post on Instagram
![This is Paul Pew's high school graduation photo. The 2023-2024 school year marked his 34th year of teaching. He began his career in Washington, then came to McCallum where he has taught for the past 17. At heart though, he’s really a musician. One that grew up in many different places, including Chicago and California, who took interest in teaching from a young age. His high school choir experience, along with some international singing in college, persuaded him that teaching was his path. He knew he wanted to be able to help create works of art in the fine arts department as well, so he joined McCallum. He’s worked on many of the musicals over the years, even before Joshua Denning, the former theatre director of the fine arts program arrived. Before him was a different director: Tatum.
“I was the music director for all the musicals,” Pew said. “[Mr. Tatum and I] worked very hard, and I just got to the point where I was satisfied with it.” Although he may not be as prominent of a member in the musical theatre community at McCallum anymore, he still plays piano. “I still do a lot of music down at the Music end of the building,” Pew said. Photo courtesy of Paul Pew.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Paul-Pew-1974-888x1200.jpg)