Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is an incubator for future artists. What’s going on within the walls of the school is invigorating and contagious. After just walking the halls, even a person with two left feet feel like they could compete on “Dancing With The Stars.”
The students don’t just attend school. They thrive thanks to the staff and the environment.
Faisal Halum and Brian Bolke
To celebrate and fundraise this Dallas treasure, couture retailer Brian Bolke and couture residential realtor Faisal Halum chaired “FlyingHorse III” on May 10 to benefit the Arts Magnet School. It was a three-place party.
Starting off at the Wyly Theater roof deck sponsored by Neiman’s, guests cocktailed.
Brian said that he estimated that only seven drops of rain fell. . . “It reminded me planning any outdoor event in Dallas takes nerves of steel.”
Gonzalo Bueno and Michael McCray
Merry Vose and Sharon Young
Catherine and Will Rose
Christina Crews and Todd Goldberg
Then guests like Catherine and Will Rose, Merry Vose, Gonzalo Bueno, Michael McCray, Sally and Tom Dunning, Christina Crews, Todd Goldberg, Sharon Young, Sheryl Maas, Jenny and John Kirtland and Lisa and John Runyon strolled across the street to the Booker T. Washington Arts Theater, where guests were blown away by an “electrifying” opening dance number followed by a strings performance and a jazz performance.
Lucy Wrubel and Tom and Sally Dunning
Blending a live show with video clips of Booker T. students and faculty, the presentation itself was typical of the school. Before 55 string musicians entered the stage, the theater went dark. Then a “light/glow stick attached to a bow” was seen. And then another one and another one as they played Viva La Vida by Coldplay.
As much as the audience was enjoying the action on the stage, the “look on faces of the jazz quartet members when they got to play with Branford Marsalis” was the true memory maker. According to Brian, “I am sure to them (the students), it was like playing in the Super Bowl.”
Branford Marsalis
Summing up the performance, Brian and Faisal described it as an “overwhelming sense of surprise and pride” by guests “that such an amazing group of students, in our very own city, literally put on a world-class show.”
The final stop of the evening was the Joule Hotel’s rooftop pool where DJ Lucy Wrubel provided the music while mini-cheese burgers, red velvet cupcakes and Grey Goose vodka cocktails were served.
Photos provided by FlyingHorse III