PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE CANTRELL

One of the happier open secrets in the Oregon cultural world is the high-quality incubator of talent that is ACMA, the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy. Part of the Beaverton School District, it’s a rigorous public school for students in grades 6-12 that specializes in pre-professional training in dance, music, theater, visual arts, electronic arts, and creative writing. Its graduates routinely go on to top college programs and, often, professional careers.

ACMA’s advanced dance company, Dance West, will perform its spring program, Walk With Me, Thursday through Sunday, April 26-29, at the school’s Visual and Performing Arts Center, 11375 S.W. Center Street, Beaverton, with special performances Saturday night and Sunday afternoon by the Pacific Youth Choir. If track records mean anything at all, there’s going to be some good dancing and singing going on.

What will the program look like? We can’t say, exactly. But photographer Joe Cantrell was on hand in late January for Elevated, the ACMA dance program’s student choreography concert, with dancers from all levels, and he had his camera in overdrive. The program was inventive and exhilarating. There were solo dances, small-group dances, guest choreography from faculty member Kemba Shannon and ACMA alum Nick Jurica, now a student at The Juilliard School in New York. Some of the action whirled on and around a giant box, in one piece as several dancer/artists painted scenes on it.

We’ve selected eleven of Joe’s photos from that showcase to give you a sense of the verve and style of the school’s dance program and the work its students and teachers do.

Dancers Anna Williams, Olivia Frank, and Courtney Nunn in student choreographer Bridget Derville-Teer’s “Strange.”

Flying high: Jada Lee leaps high above Ariana Davis, Ethan Myers, and Olivia Frank in “Strange.”

Anna Williams and Ian Reeb dance atop a box in “In the Evening,” choreographed by its four student dancers.

“Mountains,” an eruption of movement and paint, featured student choregrapher/dancers (from left) Naomi Weiser, Azelle Chang, and Olivia Frank, with Nicolas Bierwagen wielding the paintbrush.

Denisse Martinez-Perez, Bryan Arauza-Lopez, and Celia Castillo-Torres in faculty choreographer Kemba Shannon’s “Green Garden.”

Swing front, swing back: all awhirl in “Green Garden.”

Reach for the sky: From left, Taylor Masanga, Denisse Martinez-Perez, Maggie Bartell, and Osa Aareskjold in “Green Garden.”

Aishwarya Marathe performing “Tribute to Sheeva.”

Sharp wings, taut line: elbows akimbo in “Chicken Wing Splat,” choregraphed by ACMA alum and Juilliard student Nick Jurica.

Come back! The horizontal stretch in “Chicken Wing Splat.”

Over and out: “Chicken Wing Splat,” and the evening of 10 dances, head for the wings, capping a successful evening.