From Camper Noel,
Camp was awesome!
We arrived at Camp Welcome’s Studio 34, wood floors, moist air and tiny pictures of blue skies pasted on the back wall behind our counselors Shosh, Venrick, Louise and Nadia. They awkwardly greeted each other with missed high hives hugs and goofy faces. We had blue “Hello my name is” sticker badges too. I chose my favorite color to write my name on… orange of course!
After orientation we climbed into the four black chairs – stage left … I mean the “bus,” Counselor Venrick was driving but he wasn’t very good at it. He mimed starting the “bus” four times before it started up. The rhythmic shoulder bounces of the dancers… I mean counselors, mimicked a rocky road. Venrick and Shock leaned off center to the left, Nadia and Louis leaned right. The bus turned into a diagonal line with our counselors lunging forward on abrupt stops and I think one of them almost fell out the door. Eventually Shosh, trying to impress counselor Louise, takes the wheel from Venrick and we make it safely to the camp grounds.
We did so many activities! I mean the games, my favorites, were gaga ball, and scary stories by the fire pit, and swimming! Counselor Nadia was intense and really committed to her character.
One night, after we went to sleep, I had this dream that the counselors were trained modern dancers and I was a dance writer. They rose from their bunks with strong spines shifting smoothing into a Horton Lateral T. They took a forced arch and hinged all the way to the floor rising on their coccyx bones, Graham hands cupped. The signature Paul Taylor runs ignited the stage. A hearty and quintessential breath cue syncs the counselors back together as they demonstrate drop swings, back attitude turns and Cunningham battements. I even saw one of those Doris Humphrey passé falls. This all dissolved into contemporary aesthetics as the song Viva la Vida by Cold Play finished. It was like watching an experiential history lesson in Legacy Modern Dance… I think.
Wait, was this a dance camp? I don’t know but whatever it was by the time we all climbed back into the black chairs now facing away from the audience… I mean the “bus”, I wasn’t ready to leave. Luckily they are having a couple more camp sessions before the end of Fringe.
Maybe you can convince your parents to take you. I’ll leave the details below.
seven ate nine, Jena Barton in collaboration with Michaela Delaney Guthrie, Shosh Isaacs, Venrick James, Nadia Ureña, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Ave., Sept.11, 17, 18, 2026. (Nadia Ureña is a thINKingDANCE writer.)
