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 Making
Alvin Proud
By Cheryl Ossola
At AileyCamp, dance is a means to a greater goal
As the house lights dim at Zellerbach Hall, on the University
of California’s Berkeley campus, two nervous girls stand in a
spotlight reciting poems they have written during the six
weeks of AileyCamp. Then the curtain rises on a program of
dance and spoken word that is endearing and invigorating in
its earnestness. The energyfilled performance may lack polish
and brilliant technique, but that’s just as it should be. At
AileyCamp, dance is a tool that’s used to achieve a much
bigger mission.
AileyCampers learn a lot about dance, but they also learn
about life, and people, and how to function in society. The
single biggest lesson these young people walk away with is not
how to do a plié, how a dance is put together, or how to
memorize steps. It’s discovering, every day and in various
contexts, that they have choices—about who they are and what
they will do with their lives, and how art can help them
figure out both of th ose
things. In every class, whether it’s learning a jazz
combination, experimenting with slam poetry, discussing social
and racial tensions, or writing in a journal, these kids learn
that self-expression comes in many forms.
Talk to anyone affiliated with AileyCamp and you will find
yourself on the receiving end of an impassioned explanation of
what makes this program so valuable. Alvin Ailey,
founder/director of New York City–based Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater (AAADT), left a legacy of giving back to the
community when he died in 1989. His commitment to young people
is the driving force behind the camp, and one can only assume
that he would have loved what his successors have achieved.
“Mr. Ailey was generous and he was accessible, and those are
two words that are everywhere within the Ailey organization,”
says AileyCamp national director Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, a
former Ailey dancer. “It’s important for young people to know
that they can do something. It is a gift to be able to get up
and walk. It is a gift to have this instrument that you can
use.”
AileyCamp began in 1991 in New York City and now has eight
other sites: Berkeley; Boston; Bridgeport, CT; Chicago; Kansas
City, MO and KS; and (new this year) Atlanta and Staten
Island. Hosting organizations, not the Ailey Foundation, are
responsible for funding and running their camps. For the
campers, everything is free: two meals a day, camp T-shirts
and shorts, dancewear a nd
shoes, field trips, and bus transportation. The Berkeley
location, officially called the Oakland/Berkeley AileyCamp at
Cal Performances,
is hosted and administered by Cal Performances on the UC–Berkeley
campus. According to Cal Performances’ director of public
relations, Christina Kellogg, the organization raises
approximately $250,000 each year to fund the camp, which
started in 2002 with a three-year grant from the Hewlett
Foundation.
All eligible sites share a common denominator: a history of
hosting AAADT or its second company, Ailey II. That allows the
program to extend beyond the six weeks of classes to include
reunions, at which the campers and their families can see the
company perform and take master classes with company members.
That connection to the Ailey legacy “is an important part of
the process,” says Thomas-Schmitt.
Nationally, the camps serve approximately 650 middle schoolers,
most of whom have had little or no experience with dance.
(Although the camp is not a preprofessional training program,
the Ailey Foundation tries to arrange scholarships with local
dance programs so that talented students can continue their
training.) According to the Berkeley camp’s director, David
McCauley (also a former Ailey dancer), middle school is the
perfect time to reach these students. “It’s a difficult age
and it’s the best age,” he says. “They can make decisions;
they are still receptive to change; and they know how to enjoy
themselves. It’s an excellent time.”
The campers are recruited through presentations at schools in
areas where most children have few opportunities to experience
the arts. Applicants are interviewed, says Thomas-Schmitt, “so
that the director has a better understanding
 of
who this child is, what challenges they might face, how they
view themselves, what their family
situation is. So everyone has an idea of what they’re getting
into. The campers sign a commitment contract, because it’s one
thing for parents to say, ‘I want my child to come here,’ and
another
for the child to say, ‘I commit to coming for six weeks, to
having my attire here every day, and to participating.’ And
when there are problems, the director can say, ‘Look at what
you signed. It says all this, and it’s not happening. What do
you think we should do?’ ”
Though the camp rules are strict—hair is pulled back; big
jewelry, gum chewing, candy, and soft drinks are banned; and
there’s zero tolerance for violence—the results “are great,” says
Thomas-Schmitt, and parents are enthusiastic. “The program
helps to develop well-rounded young adults. And that is
something every parent wants.” But, she adds, “the kids must
have the desire to accomplish these
things; they have to embody it for themselves. I always say,
‘It’s not about making the right or wrong decision. It’s about
making the best choice for you at this particular
moment.’ That’s something they can understand.”
Not all of the campers arrive feeling certain that this is the
place for them—like 12-year-old Oscar Urquiza. “I wanted to go
to a sports camp, but my mom said, ‘Why don’t you give it a
shot for a week?’ So I came, and I like
it more than sports,” he says. “They cheer you up and tell you
not to give up, and if you want to give up they’ll keep on encouraging
you. I’m thinking of being a volunteer next year.”
Empowerment is a key concept at AileyCamp. “A lot of these
kids don’t have a family structure or support for their goals
and dreams,”
says Thomas-Schmitt. “We talk about goal setting and the
possibility
of reaching these goals. Say you tell two kids to write a
one-page summary [of a book]. One brings in a typ ed
page and
the other brings in a handwritten paper and says, ‘I don’t
have a computer at home.’ I’d say, ‘Well,
there are computers at school. You could type it there. You’re
going to be applying to college in a couple of years, and
they’ll look at a typed application much quicker than a
handwritten one—they’ll throw that in the garbage.’ It’s all
about production and presentation. All of these things are
part of what goes into AileyCamp from the first day.”
McCauley tells the kids that what they are learning translates
into life outside of camp. “I say, ‘Who wants to be a singer?
A writer? This is what you’re going to go through no matter
what you plan to do. You’re going to come
in thinking you know a lot, and you’re going to find out that
you don’t. You have to be willing to accept that and then take
your instruction and keep adding onto it. You’ll get there,
but it’s going to take the same discipline that we’re asking
of you here.’ ”
Camper Kenya Jelks, 12, is a good example of empowerment in
action. She gushes about how much fun the campers have, how
much she loves African dance, and how much harder ballet
is than she imagined. “Willie [Anderson, the ballet teacher]
said, ‘It’s not easy, but you have to try.’ He gave me
courage, so I tried; if
I didn’t get it, I tried again.” When asked to name something
important she has learned, she grows serious. “They taught me
that if I want something I have to go for it, and I shouldn’t
give up on myself. If you keep on trying, there is a way to
get through
things that you thought were hard, and they will no longer be
hard.”
In Berkeley the campers start their day with breakfast, then
gather onstage for affirmations, led by McCauley. “One of them
is to not say, ‘I can’t.’ If you say, ‘I can’t,’
then you can’t do it. If you say, ‘I don’t know how,’ you can
always learn,” he says. The roughly 75 students then divide up
into four groups (each one monitored by a college-age group
leader) and rotate through their
classes: Horton-based modern dance, ballet, African, ja zz
dance, performance
techniques, personal
development, and creative communications. Fridays are reserved
for field trips, like sailing on San Francisco Bay.
On a Monday in June during the camp’s third week, the walls in
Shawn Nealy’s personal development classroom are lined with
statistics: “One child dies every three hours from gunfire.”
“Of the 15,000 hours of TV kids watch, they will see 180,000
murders, rapes, robberies, etc.” On a positive note, posters
about self-esteem, integrity,
and classroom expectations abound. That day’s assignment is
to write down three things that affected the campers’
self-esteem in the past week. Nealy’s
approach is no-nonsense but polite, peppered with positive
feedback. She explains everything
carefully, and her immediate response
to questions is “I’m listening.” At first, as the kids get to
know each other, Nealy says, “there is culture shock. By the
second day, conflicts arise, and by the fourth day we’re into
conflict resolution. The kids say it helps them come together.
I tell them, ‘Attitude is everything. You can’t have fun if
there’s conflict.’ ”
The kids’ eagerness to participate is striking. They may not
want to share their own writing in creative communications,
but eight hands shoot up when teacher Kate Schatz asks the
group what someone else’s poem was
about. Camper Charles Edwards,
13, describes one of the classes as “really deep. We were al l
crying because we did ‘I remember’ poems.” In the jazz class,
when teacher Rosario Lionudakis asks a question or wants
volunteers to move
to the front row, there’s a sudden burst of enthusiasm from
kids who had seemed inattentive. As small groups finish a
combination, their friends give them a high-five.
If kids are the heart of AileyCamp, the teachers are its soul.
Apart from looking for accomplished instructors, McCauley
tries to get
“a broad spectrum of people who can work together and focus on
the children. They have to support each other because it can
be intense, and the kids see that. And if the students
have difficulty with anything, I tell them they can always
talk to someone in staff. I try to
have a wide variety of people so that just about any student
will find someone they can click with.”
According to modern-dance teacher M’bewe Escobar, AileyCamp
has a profound ability to transform children. “I know that
many of them use their new skills in their academic settings.
And given the nature of society today—
the abundance of influences that surround young people, the
challenges and pressures that affect their choi ces—in
that sense, all children are at risk of making the
wrong choice. These kids are at an age where
they can discover
the kinds of choices that will show them the road to success.
AileyCamp does that, and that’s why I’m involved with it. It’s
a cool thing for children to be validated if they enjoy
writing or the visual arts, to be told it’s a good thing and
they should continue exploring it. It’s great to find out
about yourself; I think it helps them
make good choices. They could choose a group of people who are
into something positive and not a situation where the outcome
could be negative.”
As director of the New York City camp for three years, Escobar
says she saw the program transform
families as well. “When parents see their children doing
something they didn’t know they could do, it helps
them to see them in a different way. So the children
get a new sense of themselves and their possibilities, and
the families can too.”
Even the structure and process of a dance class helps to teach
children
life lessons. “One of the benefits of a dance
education is that
it dispels this
crazy myth that dancers are dumb beca use
they’re mute,”
says
Escobar.
“The
mind
is totally
engaged. And whatever technique is being taught, certain principles
are universal. The idea of knowing and maintaining their
personal space and respecting others’—it’s a big deal for
young people this age.” She emphasizes
how learning
technique and choreography
teaches children about follow-through. “Ninety percent of their
choreography
comes
from
what they did in class; I build it into class. I want them to
see that the process has brought them to a [new]
place. They can use this kind of
process, of
setting goals and
working through
it, for the rest of their lives.”
Partial
proof of the camp’s success is the desire of former campers
to return as volunteers; some
eventually move into paid positions as group leaders and one
now teaches at AileyCamp. Others say that AileyCamp didn’t change
their life but,
says
Thomas-Schmitt, “it enhanced [it] and instilled certain values
in them.
For some people it’s a life-saver.”
One who changed dramatically, says McCauley, is former camper
Yejide Najee-Ullah, a 2007 AileyCamp group leader and a
sophomore at Smith College. “Unbeknownst to me [in 2002], she
didn’t want to be here,” he says. “The turnaround in her after
she saw what was going on was so quick and so complete
that she volunteered f or
us every year since then. She is [the Berkeley site’s] first
camper who’s now an employee.”
Having former campers in the program is “the ultimate form of
mentorship,” says McCauley. “The [campers] know that Yejide
was [one of them], and now she goes to this wonderful
college. It’s like, ‘Oh—that’s a possibility for me, too.’ ”
McCauley can’t talk about AileyCamp without getting teary.
“Every year, there I am, watching them get ready to perform,
and it’s been six weeks of ‘Do
this,’ and ‘You have to be ready.’ And some of them are just
kind of there, and
some are about to do the wrong thing at the wrong time, and
I’m just like, ‘Whatever happens when the curtain goes up,
happens.’ And then to see them pull themselves together, to
see that light go on in them when the curtain goes up, to see
them change when the audience applauds— it’s terrific.”
“It’s blood, sweat, and tears for six weeks, but it’s one of
the most gratifying kinds of teaching that I do,” says
Escobar. “Every time I see the children perform it’s like
seeing the butterfly emerge from the chrysalis. They have
grown their wings and they are ready to fly.”
Photo captions (from top to bottom):
AileyCampers feel the power of dance in a rehearsal with
teacher M’bewe Escobar. Photo courtesy Cal Performances
Campers Kenya Jelks (left) and Te’Ana Bailey. Photo by Jim
Dennis
Ballet teacher Willie Anderson works with Selena Ramirez and
Gerardo Torres on their group’s performance piece. Photo by
Jim Dennis
AileyCampers in ballet class. Photo courtesy Cal Performances
Spoken word segments add poignancy to the performance. Photo
by Jim Dennis
For director David McCauley, AileyCamp is a labor of love.
Photo courtesy Cal Performances
AileyCampers celebrate after their performance. Photo by Jim
Dennis
Beautiful-Summer Spears (left) and Bismillah Carter-Diouf
break away from their creative communications project for a
photo op. Photo courtesy Cal Performances
An African dance, a camper favorite, brought cheers from the
audience at the performance. Photo by Jim Dennis
Modern-dance instructor M’bewe Escobar leads rehearsal. Photo
by Jim Dennis
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