When Alvin Ailey and the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey developed AileyCamp in 1989, the final year of the pioneering African American choreographer’s life, they succeeded in their quest to establish a full-scholarship summer program for middle-school students promoting personal development through dance.
“I’ve learned how to build relationships with others and how to learn fast,” says 12-year-old Laila Nicole Butler, a Pinole resident attending this year’s Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp, which culminates with performances next week in Zellerbach Playhouse on the University of California, Berkeley campus.
Approximately 70 students from East Bay schools ages 11-14 annually enroll in the program at UC Berkeley, one of 10 six-week AileyCamps across the nation and the only one at a university.
“I’ve learned that there’s no use in being self-conscious because everyone feels that way,” adds camper Soshana Clausen-Igra, 12, from Berkeley. “You need to own yourself and your confidence.”
“What makes AileyCamp unique is that all of what you need in art to succeed in life, study and school, dance has,” says Patricia West, director of the Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp. “It’s a discipline that enhances your focus. You’re asked to take risk. You have to improvise. You have to be prompt. You’ve got to be on time. You have to be succinct. All of those values are things that help you study for a test, know how to enter the work world and how to treat others. It’s an experience that will help them understand better how to navigate our world.”
Cal Performances, which has shared a nearly six-decade-long relationship with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, is producing the 23rd Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp, which honors the late Judith Jamison, dancer and former AADT artistic director.
Prospective campers are often recommended by local principals, schools, guidance counselors and artists.
“We want a diverse population so when the children look around, they see the East Bay.” says West, a dancer and assistant director and creative engagement lead for the San Francisco-based Joe Goode Performance Group.
Background in dance is not a prerequisite for participation in camp classes in modern, jazz, ballet and African forms.
“We have kids who have been dancing for years, and they’re pretty adept at that, and then we have kids for whom this is the first time in a dance class,” West says. “We want to make this camp accessible to everyone. … It’s really wonderful to have a mix of various backgrounds and experiences.”
Camp also offers creative communication classes focusing on the spoken word, creative writing, such as poetry, and visual arts.
The program also offers a personal development course; potential topics covered include nutrition, conflict management, self-esteem and drug abuse.
West calls the personal development class “the core” of the program, saying it’s a great place for important dialogue between instructors and campers. She says, “All day, they’re moving their bodies, learning new techniques, embodying these different disciplines, and using all these different muscles and structures. And then they come to this class and talk about what’s coming up for them.”
AileyCamp National Director Nasha Thomas’ theme for this year’s program is “resilience” in honor and celebration of Jamison, whose wish for a West Coast camp was fulfilled in 2002 when the Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp was established.
Resilience is also reflected in “Stronger Than Before,” the students’ finale on July 23-24. Performances include Jamison’s Emmy Award-winning “Hymn,” her 1993 tribute to Ailey along with pieces created by West and the dance instructors.
Since 2014, AileyCamp has been supported by a collaboration with the UC Berkeley Department of Education’s Principal Leadership Institute, which has a master’s degree program to train educators.
Graduate students in the partnership participate in AileyCamps’ programming, which gives them a profound, up-close understanding of how arts education benefits youngsters.
“The immersion aspect is really important because our students’ primary mode of learning is through reading a lot of theory, thinking about practice and about how theory is applicable to practice,” says PLI Director Soraya Sablo Sutton, who adds that many graduate students have not witnessed how programs with mostly African American youngsters taught by a diverse staff employing non-punitive disciplinary methods have successful outcomes.
The partnership began with PLI director Rebecca Chung, Sutton’s predecessor, who, as a principal for Berkeley Unified School District, sent her students to AileyCamp, and they called their experience transformative.
Chung, who became PLI director in 2011, developed the partnership with former Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp Director David McCauley.
About 20 to 25 students per year participate in the program, which has had success placing graduates in local schools.
“We have probably about 80 percent of our graduates who are still working as site or district level leaders in the Bay Area, so we’re a very localized program and we have great retention in the field,” Sutton says. “Our leaders stay in their work and in the field of education.”
While West points out that three current Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company members went to AileyCamp, she adds that all campers have benefited from the program.
“This experience is transformational for all of us, staff included, but really for the campers; they leave here changed,” West says. “And when I see these campers again, or I touch base with their families, I hear stories of what they’re doing, how their grades have been lifted from Cs to As, and how they have changed in terms of how they value school, how they’re seen in the classroom, and the expectations they have for themselves have soared.”
“Stronger Than Before” is at 1 p.m. July 23 (open rehearsal) and 1 and 7 p.m. in Zellerbach Playhouse on UC Berkeley campus. The 7 p.m. July 24 performance, which is full, will be live-streamed. Visit Cal Performances.org.
The post Power of the arts fuels AileyCamp at UC Berkeley, shaping youngsters, educators appeared first on Local News Matters.