SAAS Achievements

This coming Saturday, September 25, Alicia Mullikin, director of the SAAS dance department, invites you to join Dance Day at El Centro de la Raza, a community event produced by Seattle Parks and Recreation and EL SUEÑO (a company owned by Alicia)! Come move your feet to community dance classes, watch free performances in West African, Bollywood, Hip Hop, and Folklorico, and enjoy some Mexican sweets n’ treats!

Nate Counts ’24 is a rising sophomore who not only dabbles in beat making — he gained recognition from XXL Magazine for a Lil Uzi Vert beat he produced. In the realms of hip-hop and rap music, this is a big deal. Since posting his first beat on YouTube fifteen months ago, Nate has published over 85 beats on his channel, Prod.Nate, gathering over 6.44k subscribers so far.

They met in SAAS classrooms and two short years later, three Seattle Academy students aired on KEXP: Delphine Casper ’22, Henry Roseman ’22, and Calvin Lundin ’23. Their up-and-coming bands, Delphine Elliott (composed of Delphine, Henry, and Calvin) and Strange Summer (composed of Henry and Calvin), have certainly broken into the Seattle music scene with prowess.

Seattle Academy students won 16 Regional Gold Key Awards — 11 for photography, the most ever! — at this year’s Scholastics Art and Writing Competition. This competition is “the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens,” as their website boasts. For the past 12 years, SAAS students have been submitting their strongest visual art and writing for consideration.

Five students, four films, one thing in common: they all attend Seattle Academy. The SAAS community has long recognized the talents of our students—this year that recognition is extending all the way to international film festivals.

Seattle Academy dancer Lily Wong ‘21 found a way to confront recent anti-Asian hate by a means other than words. Through the form of dance, Lily teamed up with a crew of professional dancers and artists to put together a compilation film for the Guild Dance Company. The video was filmed in the International District this March by Artistic Director Alex Ung, edited by SAAS Dance Teacher Alicia Mullikin, and featured music by Max Richter. 

Recently, the Middle School Combo attended the 2021 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival! The well organized event hosted by the University of Idaho was held remotely this year. The combo created three performance videos and submitted them to the festival for adjudication.

Seattle Academy’s Performing Arts programs are taking creativity in new directions during the COVID-19 pandemic. SAAS students and faculty collaborate from remote spaces via Zoom and maximize technology to create cohesive performances for our community to enjoy in the safety and comfort of their own home.

Congratulations to Micah Shapiro ’21 for winning first place in the dance category of the 2020-21 Discover FAA High School Competitions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Micah is recognized for Kol Nidre Solo, a contemporary modern dance that he choreographed and performed.

Before departing for Winter Break, Seattle Academy dance instructor, Amy Lambert, created an opportunity to build community and collaboration among our SAAS dancers.

This fall, students in Seattle Academy’s 3D Studio Arts class created collars inspired by the legendary Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

This fall, Seattle Academy 8th graders collaborated remotely to produce Help Desk: A-Stay-At-Home Play, by Don Zolidis. Presented on November 12, this was the first 8th grade show rehearsed and performed entirely on Zoom – quite a different venue from our Black Box Theatre on the SAAS campus. 

Seattle Academy drama teacher and director, Michael Cimino, and Upper School students have taken our Culture of Performance to a new level. They have transformed the Upper School musical into a production for these socially distanced times bringing Songs for a New World to the virtual stage on November 4.

With this assignment, students got off Zoom and outside! After an introduction to Goldsworthy’s work, students ventured outdoors to collect natural materials. Next, they created thumb-nail sketches and plans to execute their pieces. Using elements of art and principles of design, students created sculptures along the lines of Goldsworthy’s work. 

Seattle Academy instrumental jazz band director Matt Frost submitted "Murder by Numbers," a song written by Sting and Andy Summers (The Police) and performed by The Red Combo to KNKX, and it was recently featured along with a collection of other jazz students from regional middle school, high school and college music programs.