Dance Camp

Some friends asked about dance camp, so I thought I’d write a description for those who’ve never been to one. Sacred Circle Dance Cape Cod was held at Camp Wingate*Kirkland.  It has beautiful grounds and is located on a pond in the middle of the thickest part of Cape Cod. Some people chose to spend one afternoon going to the sea, either Boston Bay, or the outer shore.  I had done that last year, and although it was good to get into the ocean, and to sit on the beach, it was too crowded for me to be really comfortable.  The one day I thought I would swim in the pond turned out to be too chilly for me to go into the water.  I was in a large dorm cabin with 2 other people — we were at 3 corners, so interacted rarely.
Bobbi taught one session in the morning, and one in the evening.  She taught some of her own choreographies, and some dances she’d learned on trips to South America and England.  She taught one traditional dance, Somogyi Karikazo, which I learned in Brunswick Maine over thirty years ago.  It remains one of my favorites, so I loved doing it.  She also did some very simple dances — to give our brains a rest — she called it “cleansing the palate.”  Essentially they were the Pravo Oro, the most basic dance form in eastern Europe, but done to many different musics.  Bobbi seems to find the greatest music, and doing a dance you already know to a new piece of music is almost like instantly learning a new dance.  It’s very enjoyable and restful at the same time.
In the afternoons there were different activities.  There was usually dancing for those who wanted to, several of us taught requests, or ones we especially liked.  One day there was a walk with the man who founded the camp, he told us about the geology, and the different plants we saw on our walk.  (By the way, I knew the cape was mostly sand and thought it was that way because it was the terminal moraine of a glacier – where the glacier drops all the rocks, pebbles, and sand it’s been carrying.  But no.  The Cape was originally wooded, but the trees were all cut to feed the kilns on a glassworks, and then all the soil eroded away.)
One afternoon we learned a very interesting way of walking through a labyrinth (the simpler and more universal 7 cycle one) with a partner, we were on different paths, holding hands, one was walking in while the other was walking out.  Very strange experience.  Two women taught a session of traditional dances.  I gave my audio-visual presentation of “Sacred Sites in Ancient Keltia.”
I made some new friends and found some old ones, especially one woman I had last seen about 15 years ago.  I really enjoyed doing so much dancing, having someone else cook meals (the food was really good!), and opportunities to visit with a lot of interesting people.  That’s pretty much typical of the all the dance camps I’ve been to — though some didn’t have great food.