The Three Dragons Story

Background

Lighting workshop at Three Dragons Academy.

We created Three Dragons Productions (TDP) in 1995 as a continuation of our interdisciplinary summer-stock youth theatre camps.  Our camps rotated scripts among children’s literature, legends and myths, and Shakespeare plays. TDP was in demand, and we soon found ourselves producing original scripts, directing, serving as musicians and event managers, as well as freelancing at schools and organizations around King County.

As a co-teaching team, Amy & Phoenix have worked with kids from diverse backgrounds in a range of settings from rural community-service nonprofits, to urban school districts, to private academies. But one thing has been constant: supplemental art, theater, and music education is in demand because it is often no longer provided by the mainstream curriculum.

A natural extension of our decades of teaching for and in other programs, we founded Three Dragons Academy in 2012.

 

Why We Started Three Dragons Academy

Many paths led to this particular creative crossroads, among them:

Three Dragons Academy hand drawn welcome sign.

  • Some concerned parents got together and started discussing the dream of some sort of co-op or alternative school that could be a Third Place for kids: we also discussed the dream of something that could be the best of two worlds: both the best parts of homeschooling / alternative education, AND the best of traditional (pre-reform-movement) school.

  • There's a need for arts-focused education: fine and performing arts are being cut in mainstream schooling, yet the arts are a proven way to train innovation, creative thinking, teamwork, self-discipline, public-speaking skills, attention to detail, critical analysis, self-confidence, problem solving using intelligent inquiry, and a host of other skills and virtues. We believe that divergent-thinking, imaginative young people are exactly what the future needs.

  • Our families and lead teachers love learning! Arts are our passion, and arts education especially, because music, art, and theatre create rich settings for learning without seeming like school.

  • We've been running classes and programs in smaller or temporary ways for many years—we were ready to let that programming flourish in order to help more kids!

 

The Three Dragons Name

“How’d you name your academy?” - Dragons are neat! Dragon myths exist worldwide in different yet similar forms. Dragons are known as majestic flyers, wordsmiths, bold treasure protectors, and brave conjurers of both fire and wishes. Feng Shui practices associate dragons with career and reputation. Dragons are symbols of luck, power, fierce loyalty, vigorous life and immortality, self-assuredness, leadership, and wisdom. Some consider it fortunate to be born in the Year of the Dragon. Dragons are associated with rare and unique magic and as masters of the untamed elements of nature—especially fire. For us that fire that represents the creative passion and sparks of ingenuity that children harness so well.

Romeo & Juliet:
"Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave! Beautiful tyrant!"
—Juliet


Antony and Cleopatra:
"Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish; a vapour sometime like a bear or lion, a tower’d citadel, a pendant rock, a forked mountain, or a blue promontory with trees upon’t, that nod unto the world . . . thou hast seen these signs."
—Antony


A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
"This must be done with haste, for night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. . . ."
—Puck

Whereas, the ‘Three’ comes from the three story sources our teaching often draws on:

  • Children's literature (Jane and the dragon, Puff, Smaug, Toothless, Pete's dragon, Harry Potter, Sleeping Beauty, The Neverending Story)

  • Myths and legends (Chinese dragons, St. George, Japanese wish-granting water dragons, Beowulf)

  • Shakespeare (as avid Shakespeare fans, we’ve noticed many poetic references to dragons in his works)

We chose to call ourselves an academy both to separate ourselves from the mainstream schools model, but also to give a very respectful nod to Plato's original Academy—an open marketplace of ideas where participants made thoughtful inquiries, and then, with input available from their guides/mentors, studied, researched, and discussed in order to discover answers, together.

Who Founded Three Dragons Academy?

We're Amy J. Ferguson and Phoenix Smith, cofounders and codirectors of Three Dragons Academy. We're educators as well as working professionals in the music, art, design, and theatre industries. We teach in all of TDA's programs.

We formed our production company, Three Dragons Productions (TDP), in late 1995 to provide children's theatre and music education. We innovated established arts education by integrating subjects into projects "owned" by our participants. We gave the reins of full productions to the kids and then stepped back, serving as guides for their curiosity, mentors for their imaginations, and nurturers of their self-reliance and confidence.

Three Dragons Academy is a natural extension of those decades of teaching experience: an innovation in elementary arts education (a part-time academy for full-time learners), ideal for fans of alternative education such as part-time schooling, homeschooling, online schooling, and unschooling.

Experience and Credentials

  • BFA degrees in Theatre Arts and Music (Cornish College of the Arts).

  • Professional artists: Amy is a working professional musician (principal French horn for Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society at the Seattle Rep; and pit orchestra principal for Civic Light Opera, Renton Civic Theatre, and Puget Sound Opera) and private music instructor. Phoenix is a designer and artist working in theatre and event design at venues including Nippon Kan Theatre, Broadway Performance Hall, Lincoln Center in New York and TEDx Seattle.

  • Montessori trained educators for preschool and elementary ages.

  • Over 29 years of teaching experience each, including AP and gifted/talented populations.

  • Coeducators since 1993 including Summer Youth Theatre, Broadway Bound Children’s Theatre, Snoqualmie School District, Village Theatre KIDStage, Lake Washington School District, Mercer Island School District, Youth Theatre Northwest, Children’s Services, Enter Act Theatre.

  • Faculty workshop teachers for Youth Theatre Northwest.

  • Cofounders of Summer Youth Theatre.

  • Contractors (education, design, or performance) at multiple area arts organizations including Village Theatre, Civic Light Opera/Seattle Musical Theatre, Seattle Public Theater, Broadway Bound Children’s Theatre, Seattle Fringe Theater, Freehold Studio, Renton Civic Theater, Valley Players, Northwest Actors Studio, Richard Hugo House, New City Theatre, YMCA, Bellevue College, Cornish College, University of Washington, and Seattle Shakespeare Company.

  • Members of the International & Washington State Thespians, Theatre Puget Sound, and the SAFD: Society of American Fight Directors (certified weapon proficiency in Quarterstaff & Rapier & Cloak (Singlesword); additionally trained in Broadsword, Unarmed, Smallsword, and Rapier + Dagger).

  • EF Tours & ACIS educational tour leaders since 2004, leading students abroad and domestically. Designed/led educational trips including NYC, Boston, Italy, Greece, Paris, & London.

  • Homeschooling/unschooling parents.

Awards, Accolades, and Nominations

  • 2013: CBSLocal named TDA a Top 5 Resource for homeschool families in Seattle.

  • 2014: Youth Theatre Northwest presented Amy and Phoenix with its Footlight "Guardian" Award for "nurturing creative development, ingenuity, and leaving a lasting impact on the community."

  • 2016: Top 5 finalist in the ParentMap Golden Teddy Awards for "best dance/art/theatre camps and classes in the Seattle area."

  • 2019: TDA received this same Top-5 ParentMap Golden Teddy honor from ParentMap again in 2019.