Performing Arts: Taking Center Stage

A new cohort of leaders at Pace’s School of Performing Arts (PPA) is embracing change and continuing to enable students’ professional success—all while guiding the way toward a more equitable arts community.

“We’re thinking about all the ways in which the industry is changing,” says Jennifer Holmes, PhD, who returned to Pace last fall to serve as executive director of PPA. “It’s an opportunity to look at the curriculum, look over our policies and procedures, and ensure that they are relevant and inclusive.” A performer and director, Holmes started her teaching career at Pace and went on to lead theater and communications programs at The New School and Long Island University.

“It’s an opportunity to look at the curriculum, look over our policies and procedures, and ensure that they are relevant and inclusive.”

“We’re making a real push toward interdisciplinary collaboration,” she says. That includes training students for today’s world of digital content creation—setting them up to be able to write, produce, and star in their own online series—and planning a new graduate program at the intersection of performance, design, and technology.

The new PPA leadership team includes Amen Igbinosun, an actor and educator, who joined Pace as program head for acting for film, television, voice-overs, and commercials, and Jesse Carlo, an actor, director, and choreographer, who is the new program head for musical theater. Commercial dance professors Lauren Gaul and Scott Jovavich also took on new leadership roles.

“PPA students are so talented, and they’re really the heart of the performing arts in New York City,” Holmes says. “We’re training them, and they’re also out there working. They’re bringing the things that they learn from us into the professional space, and what they learn working into our classrooms. We’re really changing the industry from the inside.”