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