summer camp is so much fun :)

I honestly really like not being able to use my phone or get on the internet (except for right now because I have my hour off) :) I also (quite surprisingly) haven't minded waking up at 5:50 and I'm starting to get used to three meals a day (although I usually take a banana or apple with me when I leave the cafeteria).

I mostly love camp life. The mornings are a little chilly, but the cool air is quite refreshing on the way to the shower. The afternoons are a little hot, but I'm usually helping with a contemporary dance class (which is a such a fun class) in the air-conditioned dance studios :) The sky stays light until after 9:30. At about 9pm the sky is still light blue :) My campers this session are all on the quieter side (which is fine with me). It takes me a little while to get them talking, but we always have nice conversations :) They're also really respectful and really care about their music. Re-auditions are today so last night four of them were reading through their music until a minute before lights out and they slept with their music under their pillows :P

Along with assisting contemporary dance, I also have had time to take at least barre and sometimes all of ballet in the mornings and I'm helping with theater "movement" classes too. The dance teachers are all wonderful and I really like the "movement" teacher too :) The theme for this session's "movement" classes is animal acting. Yesterday we learned how to act like a chicken :)

fine arts summer camp update

Things I’ve learned at summer camp (and the campers don’t even arrive until tomorrow): 

   -Living in the woods with hundreds of artists is crazy and beautiful almost all of time

   -Camp songs at a music camp actually have determined notes and are sometimes sung in harmony. (I’ve decided upon singing suuuper quietly and admiring the beautiful voices surrounding me.)  

   -Most female camp counselors don’t like spiders so I’ve had to rescue quite a few spiders from the bathroom. (Warning – previously mentioned counselors may scream if they see you walking out of the bathroom with a spider on your hand.) 

Things for which I’m excited: 

  ...helping out with theater classes like “movement”, “script analysis” and maybe even “stage combat” 

  ...spending the summer in the woods with an amazing group of encouraging, creative and (usually) absurd group of people who love art and making a difference in the lives of others :) 

  ...getting to take (most of) ballet class every morning before my daily responsibilities begin 

  ...getting to be part of a Staff Dance Ensemble in which we may be creating our own choreography

  ...helping to teach/demonstrate for Yoga and Contemporary dance classes 

  ...enjoying being electronic-free, anxiously awaiting letters and experiencing times of uninterrupted prayer in the woods

  ...having the opportunity to be a light in the lives of many young artists this summer as they grow in their art and seek to understand their purpose 

playing in the creek with Bean and some of my favorite little friends

photo credit: Chrissy Fletcher

okay, I am now ready for summer camp

*My dad said I couldn't go to camp without being properly armed so he bought me the Nerf water gun :) 

oh bother

This is incredibly upsetting, although not really unexpected news. The article is worth reading though.

I still remember sitting on couch while my mom read me Winnie the Pooh stories. My parents have read me countless stories, but, for some reason, I remember Winnie the Pooh best. I also remember hearing my dad read Winnie the Pooh to Charlotte. He does the voices differently than my mom does and, when I thirteen or fourteen, that took me a few minutes to reconcile with myself (because I was and continue to be a strange child). Anyway, these stories are part of childhood and family to me just as they were to A.A. Milne and his son. I think that he should be respected enough as an artist and father to have his stories published as they were written.

More than that though, as the article says,

". . .  while I appreciate and encourage the efforts of a publishing house to engage with the digital and eBook format – reading is reading, after all – the decision to shorten a children’s story in order to hold their attention seems, as far as I’m concerned, to defeat the object. We read to children to stimulate their imaginations, to encourage both written and verbal communication and to help them to develop lively, interesting and engaging opinions on subject matter they are consuming. Surely, then, reducing the content prevents the advancement of the very skill-set that this app looks to develop?" ~Maisie Skidmore 

Stories, more than almost anything else shaped my childhood. Still, at 19 years old, I sit in the living room as my parents read stories to my siblings and me. I cannot even comprehend not raising my own children (if it is in the Lord's plan for me to have children) in a house filled with well-written, engaging, thought-provoking, unabridged and unedited books - the paper and binding kind - the kind that smell better the longer they've been around (usually) - the kind that are full of other readers' notes or earmarked pages - the kind that can be passed from one person to the next - the kind that have distinct weights and shapes - the kind that don't involve staring at a screen (like I am doing as I write this and you are doing as you read this).

 I really hope screens never fully destroy attention and imagination. 

interesting links

beautiful analogy for the sovereignty of God

the necessity of language

faces (although, for some of these, I think it's actually more the hair than the facial features)

beautiful pictures of models and their mothers

I need a new pouch, right? I'm sure I can find something to put in it :)

a tumblr displaying police style sketches of book characters

reasons why ballet dancers are amazing at life . . . ummm, I mean, would make awesome employees

an incredibly talented friend of mine

capture-the-flag with the cousins

tree frog

homemade pancakes

impatience

I found a treasure trove of quotes on Sunday night. A family from my "home" church in Maryland, that my family has known since I was about 2 years old, had my family and few other people over to their house. I was sitting at the kitchen table when I saw a little cardstock "book" of quotes. Another lady from church (who has known my parents since they were all in college) had compiled this collection of quotes herself as a gift. I read the first quote and immediately felt the beautifully piercing sense of conviction that just takes over your whole body sometimes. This is that quote. 

"Impatience is a form of unbelief. It's what begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God's timing or the goodness of God's guidance. It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered. . . . The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss. It's a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned pace of obedience - to wait in his place and go at his pace." ~John Piper

As I continued to flip through the book, I found so many valuable pieces of truth. I took pictures of the quotes on my phone so that I can copy them into my own "quote/thought book" this week :) 
It is so incredible to be able to share in the beauty of truths that were compiled through years of reading and passed on from one lady in my church to another. 
I don't know where I'll be in the next years of my life - and it will most likely not be Maryland. Wherever it is, though, I want to be part of a community of people that desires to enrich one another's lives by sharing truth with one another. 

dying swan

he ate it

"Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters – sometimes very hastily – but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, ‘Dear Jim: I loved your card.’ Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, ‘Jim loved your card so much he ate it.’ That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it."

~Marice Sedak

p.s. Take a minute to look at a the Google home page :)

most important things to tell "civilians" when they are backstage

1) Never EVER walk behind the backdrop. Always walk around behind the stage if you need to get to other side. (Sometimes this will involve sprinting due to increased distance. Yes, this means that your break between parts onstage just turned into a heart-racing run.You will survive.)

2) Never walk offstage and stop right in the wing. There are generally people following you and you create a massive traffic jam unless you keep walking all the way to the wall.

3) If you can see the audience, they can see you.

4) Do NOT stand into front of the vertical booms. You will cast a shadow on the stage.

5) Do NOT stand directly in any wing. Dancers come running offstage all the time and being in their way is bad idea.

6) Making jokes during tech week is ill-advised. The director is being picky and snappy and this increases the pressure on all the dancers. They are already exhausted from dancing so they will most likely not respond positively to your well-meaning attempts to relieve tension. Assume that most of the dancers are ready to snap at any moment. (Honestly, most of them are.)

*I wrote this blogpost during theater week for La Fille Mal Gardee, but Fille turned into finals and blogging ceased as I became mentally and physically exhausted . . . so, I'm posting it now :) I'm considering it part of tbt (throw-back Thursday) even though I generally choose to avoid participating in such nonsense. Also, I'm performing with my "home" studio this weekend so it's really just preparation for returning to the theater :)

foundations

I've been slowly working on memorizing Hebrews 11 (since I never did in high school). The Lord has been bringing the verses about Abraham back to my mind throughout this week in conversations with family and friends and while reading blog posts. 

 "By faith Abraham obeyed when we was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to a city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10)

Personally, I don't even like completing a small task without knowing the exact details of the end result. Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. I just keep repeating that to myself. He had no idea where he was going. 

On the other hand, he knew that he was looking to a city that has foundations. Being halfway through college, I've had quite a few people ask me about my post-college plans in the last two weeks. I have a few thoughts  but, mostly, I don't really know. This week, though, it has been beautifully reassuring to be reminded that I don't have to have an American city (or any earthly city for that matter) in mind. I just need to be constantly looking to the city that has foundations. 

dancers being awesome

p.s. Pilobolus has an interesting history and does some incredibly creative work. In the great amount of free time you have, you should look them up. (Also, one of my college teachers used to dance for the company.) 

p.p.s. I guess car companies like dancers. 

'ello love

Among other things, I have recently learned that even the Lie To Me theme song can get old when you watch too many episodes on Netflix.

Also, I know the whole show is staged by actors (obviously), but I think I possibly love facial expressions even more than I did before watching this show.

That is all.