What's a day at The Dance Connection's Performing arts Day Camp like?
A Day at Camp
Follow an entire day at camp from last years musical "1969"
Each day is a little different at The Dance Connection's Performing Arts Camp. The children will have circle time, dance class, art and painting time, singing class, and rehearsal every day. Other activities like yoga, acting practice, massage circle, and game time may not meet daily. We have a maximum enrollment of 30 campers who we divide into 2 groups largely by age. Following is a sample day from one of last year's camps. Our theme for that week was 1969. So the whole musical was based on the events and trends of that year.
Early Drop Off
Parents who have to go to work can drop their kids off as early as 7:30.
Early drop off is 7:30 am. Kids that come early sometimes bring breakfast, play games, watch a video, do crafts or just sit and talk to one of the counselors.
Circle Time
Camp starts at 9:00 am with learning and planning.
Camp activities start at 9:00 with circle time. During circle time we talk about our theme for the week. This week our musical is based on the year 1969. Lots of exciting things happened in 1969; Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, protests over the Vietnam war were at their peak and Disco was just starting to become popular. We spend about 30 minutes talking about the year 1969 and what our plans are for he end of the week show. One child wants to make space helmets out of cardboard boxes; another thinks we should make a giant peace sign out of foam board.
Art/Painting
Campers work on a take-home project and help construct scenery for Friday's show.
After circle time the kids are off to art/painting class. They have their own craft or drawing project that they work on and when they're done with that they start painting the scenery. We know we want our protest scene to be at a university so Miss Doreen starts tracing the outline of a big Stanford University sign on a giant foam board. The kids help to paint it and offer their ideas. Maybe there's a bird on the sign or even a tree behind the sign. How big should the lettering be? The kids help make these decisions.
Dance Class & Choreography
Campers do a combination of ballet, jazz and musical theatre.
When snack time is over its dancing time. The kids go into the big studio and start class. Dance class is a combination of Ballet, Jazz and Musical Theatre. The first 15 minutes of class campers work on basic and intermediate ballet moves. Then Mr. David puts on swing music and everyone moves on to jazz and musical theatre.
Class lasts about an hour, after which the kids get a water break and then start working on choreography for the show. Since the year is 1969 we've decided to do a disco dance. Mr. David plays a few appropriate songs for the kids and then the kids choose. This week it's going to be "Dance to the Music" by Sly and the Family Stone. With Mr. David directing, the kids will help choreograph the dance. The music plays and each child takes a few minutes to work out their own steps. Mr. David is there to help kids and give them ideas if they want. When everyone is finished campers start to teach each other their steps. Over the course of the week these steps are put together to form a whole dance.
Snack Time/Break
The Dance Connection will provide snacks for your child
Painting time lasts about 90 minutes. Afterwards the kids get a 15 minute snack break. The Dance Connection provides snacks for all campers. Snacks include pretxles, pudding, juice, string cheese, crackers, goldfish and ice pops. There's a counselor that's assigned to each group. This counselor will be with the same group for the whole week. He/She keeps an eye on what the kids eat, and their basic need throughout the day.
Singing/Music
Campers practice singing technique and work on songs for the show.
When free time is over it's time for singing and music class. The kids work with Miss Adele on rhythm and pitch and then they start practicing the songs for our show. This week we're using Beatles songs "Revolution" "All you Need is Love" and "Get Together" by The Youngbloods. Sometimes we change the words to fit our theme.
There will be live musicians to play for the kids during the show on Friday. This week were going to have two guitar players. Next week it might be different. One week we had a clarinet accompany the show.
Rehearsals
This is where we stage the show and put all the pieces together
After a short break and possibly a snack rehearsals start. This is where we put the show together and work on our lines. Since we're doing a protest scene we let the kids decide what they'd like to protest. They decide they want to protest homework, bed time, yelling and being bossy. We work these things into our scene. As the week progresses the campers often work on their lines in small groups. Sometimes everyone sits down and we all work on pronouncing our lines clearly and loudly. The children are reminded to speak up but not to yell.
Rehearsal usually lasts about 30-45 minutes at the beginning of the week. However, by the end of the week when everyone is getting ready for the show rehearsals are longer.
The End of the Day
We usually have a low stress activity such as stretching or free time
Camp activities end at 5:00. Usually the children get some free time for about 30 minutes at the end of the day. We may also, time permitting, have a yoga class, a massage circle or play freeze dance. Some kids are hungry and get a snack.
Late pick up is 6:00. Campers that stay with us between 5:00 and 6:00 usually have free time. This means a movie, crafts, games or other activities lead by a counselor.
Are you looking for a day camp? Learn more about our Performing Arts Camp.
Web Design by DesignBrooklyn.com