Alumni • Class Year
Class of 1978
Explore a graduating year from the School of Performing Arts at West 46th Street, including documented alumni whose careers extended into Broadway, film, television, dance, and music.
A Late-1970s Class Year
The Class of 1978 belongs to the final decade of the School of Performing Arts at West 46th Street. This page documents graduates whose connection to that year can be supported by reliable historical and professional sources.
The Class Year
1978 at the School of Performing Arts
In 1978, the School of Performing Arts was still operating at 120 West 46th Street in Manhattan. The school had already been organizationally joined with the High School of Music & Art since 1961, but the two legacy schools continued on separate campuses until they began operating together in the LaGuardia facility in 1984. Students graduating in 1978 therefore belonged to the distinct West 46th Street era of Performing Arts.
Class-year records can become inaccurate when names are repeated without documentation. This page therefore does not claim to reproduce the complete 1978 graduating class; it highlights graduates whose connection to the year can be supported and can expand as additional reliable records are verified.
Valarie Pettiford
Valarie Pettiford is an actor, dancer, singer, and choreographer whose professional career spans Broadway, touring productions, television, film, cabaret, and dance education. Current biographical references identify the High School of Performing Arts as her education and describe her as a 1978 graduate.
A Professional Career Already Beginning
The year 1978 was not only her graduation year. Broadway records show Pettiford as the original swing in A Broadway Musical, which opened in December 1978, and biographical sources place her in The Wiz while she was still enrolled at Performing Arts. Her later credits include Dancin', Sophisticated Ladies, Big Deal, Show Boat, Chicago, and Fosse.
The Class of 1978 in Context
In 1978, the School of Performing Arts was still based at 120 West 46th Street, several years before Performing Arts and Music & Art began operating together in the new LaGuardia facility in 1984. Students in this period trained within a school culture built around serious preparation in drama, dance, and music.
The class year is especially useful as a window into the school’s late-1970s legacy: graduates were entering a New York performing arts world shaped by Broadway, touring productions, television, film, concert work, and rapidly changing popular culture.
Research note: This is a developing class-year profile, not a complete yearbook transcription. Additional 1978 graduates should be added only when attendance or graduation can be supported by a reliable record.
A Class Year at the Edge of Professional New York
The School of Performing Arts occupied an unusual place in New York education. Students completed secondary-school academics while training intensively for artistic work, and the school's location in Manhattan placed professional theater, dance, music, and production culture close at hand. For some students, the transition from school to professional work was therefore unusually short.
Pettiford's 1978 record illustrates that overlap particularly well. Playbill and IBDB document a Broadway credit in the same calendar year, while later career records show work as a performer and dance captain and a Tony Award nomination for Fosse. Her career cannot represent every member of a graduating class, but it demonstrates why preserving year-based alumni history can add context that broad “notable alumni” lists often miss.
Continue Through the Alumni Archive
For a broader view of documented alumni, visit Notable Alumni. You can also explore the school's legacy through Actors, Musicians & Songwriters, and Dancers & Choreographers.
Sources
Research References
HighSchoolofPerformingArts.com is an independent historical and educational publication. It is not an official website of, affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts or New York City Public Schools.