The organized chaos took place this week in an upstairs room in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall as part of the 20th annual Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Summer at the Center program.
Although the festivities might appear to be an arts summer camp, organizers said a lot more than singing and dancing was going on.
"We hope that this program provides them with tool to make new choices, better choices," Talena Mara, the Segerstrom Center's vice president of education.
The program caters to high school students born into complicated situations who need a new life direction, she said. The students, because of various personal reasons, were identified only by their first names.
They don't have to have any artistic abilities, but they have to be ready to correct their bad choices and achieve positive goals, Mara said.
"We want them to walk away understanding that there is always a better choice," Mara said.
The 40 students chosen to participate were from the county's Alternative, Community and Correctional Education Schools and Services, or ACCESS, program.
The students spend their time in music and theater workshops, hear presentations from program alumni and rehearse for the program's culmination: three free public performances in the Segerstrom Center's Samueli Theater.
The program teaches the students the importance of the creative process — focus, self-awareness, an entrepreneurial spirit, using their imaginations and being courageous enough to try for goals — in their everyday lives and at work, Mara said.
For Liz, a 17-year-old senior, hearing from the program's alumni about what they have gone on to do has been the most inspiring.
Liz had issues at her school with bullying, fighting and cutting class. She fell behind in credits before she transferred to ACCESS.
