About Us

The philosophy of TBPAA is to use the theatrical and performing arts to help students understand themselves and others, improve their skills, and bolster their self-esteem.  We subscribe to the following quote by A. Horin :
"Performing Arts Education is not about creating future artists. It's about enabling dream-making to happen in all students." (Horin 2008)

We base our goals on research  conducted by the University of Maryland (2007) that focuses on the linkage between children's participation in activities such as acting or music lessons.  The research shows participation in performing arts is linked to positive outcomes in school, emotional development, family life and behavior.  Research proves  that performing arts activities play a central role in cognitive, motor, language and social emotional development.

Dance has a tremendous impact on the growth of every child. There is strong evidence to show that it strengthens problem solving and critical thinking skills. Dancing can also reduce obesity, guard against osteoporosis, improve posture and muscle strength and increase fitness generally”.

Acting & Drama improves intelligence and communication levels. Working with scripts helps improve reading and general knowledge skills and doing tasks such as improvisation develop imagination and self expression. Supporting evidence appears on the government website Performing Arts Local (2008) ‘...acting encourages self-discipline, diligence, self-expression, calmness, and fulfilment.’

Singing & Music allows children to easily access emotions as songs hold different feelings and can quickly change. The quick mood changes in songs help children to realize emotions are not something to be scared of and change naturally. In a report titled ‘The benefits of Music on Child Development’ (2002), it is stated that the learning of music assists with primary mental abilities (verbal, perceptual, numeric, spatial) and motor-skills. Different styles of music introduce children to cultures across the world and make them more accepting of different races to their own.

 At Tampa Bay Performing Arts Academy, our focus is on performance and we mean it.  It is our goal to give each and every member of our musical theater casts & Encore Performance Team as much stage time as possible.  

We believe that students should have lots of opportunities to demonstrate the skills they learn in class in front of a live audience.  Our teachers  know how vitally important it is to transition from rehearsal to performance and that can only happen in a live show.  Each performance builds a student's confidence in themselves and with continued successes and occasional recoveries from failures students builds sustaining self-esteem.

Whether a true beginner with no experience or a student with years of performance ,  our goal is to give each student the opportunity to grow and share their talent on stage!!