This year’s 23rd annual Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp that recently started and runs through July 25 is setting various spaces on the UC Berkeley campus afire with the energy of youth ages 11 to 14.
Named for the renowned 20th century African American dancer, choreographer and activist Alvin Ailey (britannica.com/biography/Alvin-Ailey-Jr), who founded New York City’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and led by AileyCamp Director Patricia West, Cal Performances’ free six-week program runs daily from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A professional staff run by Cal Performances, UC Berkeley’s performing arts organization, introduces or extends the training of about 70 students to classes in African and modern dance, ballet, jazz, creative communication and personal development.
Field trips, workshops, breakfast and lunch in the university dining hall, a campus scavenger hunt and other activities augment the central focus on dance and inter- and intrapersonal development. The grand finale is a professionally presented performance that’s ticketed but admission-free at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. Audiences for the often sold-out performances largely consist of students’ family and friends.
In an interview, Director West says three features that continue to resonate in AileyCamp students’ lives long after they have departed are: the importance of aiming for a personal best and the idea that this is enough; giving oneself space to pause, reflect and choose what they want to do, say and become; and a real-life awareness of how participating in the arts provides a means of expression and strength for all manner of accomplishments in their lives and future careers.
A person searching for evidence of the camp’s immediate and lasting impact need look no further than third-time student Xochi Johnson. At age 13, she will enter eighth grade this fall at Berkeley’s Longfellow Middle School. In an interview, Xochi says dance has “always been a part of me, even when I was a baby.” Early lessons included hip-hop dance and led her to apply for the camp, but her second- and third-year returns are anchored in first year experiences.
“I opened out more. I became more social. My first year, I started out introverted, shy. Then AileyCamp made me meet people who were relatable to me. There’s nothing that was hard except learning new dances. I’d never done those before — all the different types of dancing like modern, jazz, ballet and African. It was hard at first and then got easier later on.”
Each camp is also meant as a chance to be immersed in an environment that’s warm and welcoming and at the same time exhilarating, challenging and fun.
“I just love how they treat you,” Xochi says. “They make me feel like I’m actually welcome. The staff and teachers are really good people. It’s a space that’s excited, happy, with people lifting you up when you’re down. You are loved.”
While the love may soothe anxiety and instructors’ positivity can stimulate creativity and braveness, the camp is not considered “easy.” The most obvious demands are physical, with young bodies encountering new forms of movement, students rapidly learning excerpts of dances created by Ailey from the company’s repertoire for adult performers and weeks of an all-out, athletic and artistic push towards the final program. Classes and exercises emphasizing personal development and expression are a just-as-vital layer that adds emotional and social elements to the curriculum.
“Especially now, I want to talk about social media,” Director West says. “We have these computers in our pockets and turn them on. We have access to news around the world. We can post ourselves as if we are our own little commercial. I see youth becoming less people-oriented. They’re not practicing how to greet someone, make conversation. Now if they’re uncomfortable, they can pull out the phone. It’s a distraction, a safety net.”
With that in mind, students hand over their phones at the start of each day.
“They have to be in the presence of each other without that crutch,” West says. “We talk about greeting, we shake hands, do high-fives and stand in front of mirrors and make shapes with our bodies. They are completely disarmed. We have them move and talk about their feelings — things even most adults aren’t asked to do. Learning to develop inter- and intrapersonal skills is important at this time, at any time.”
A special aspect of the camp this year resides in the legacy of Judith Jamison, an internationally acclaimed dancer with the company who became its second artistic director after Ailey asked her to succeed him following his 1989 death. Jamison, 81, led the company for 21 years before her death last November.
“This year we’re doing her piece, ‘Hymn.’ That is definitely unique,” says West. “She created and choreographed it as a love letter to Alvin Ailey. There’s a narrator that speaks throughout it.
“You hear Alvin Ailey’s voice, and then the narrator emulates his voice and other people talking about him. It’s an ode to him and to her. It makes sense that this (year’s) theme is ‘resilience.’ We’re looking at how this pertains to ourselves but also at who in their lives are resilient individuals. What can we learn from them?”
Once again, returning to Xochi’s story underscores West’s thoughts.
“AileyCamp brought out the confidence I didn’t know I have,” Xochi says. “I learned I can express my feelings in my movements. When I dance, there are certain feelings and emotions that are in each class — like jazz shows my sass, ballet shows how soft and loving I am in my heart, West African (dance shows) how strong I am, and modern dance has all of that combined.”
Asked to consider if simply being on a college campus — observing students, visiting university libraries and performing on a large stage — is as unforgettable as is the dancing, Xochi says, “I always wanted to go to Cal Berkeley, so I did things like explore it. But now I know where I want to go, what places they have. Cal, that’s my dream college. Mostly for studying dancing and if not that, biology.”
West may find her own long-lasting reward in hearing Xochi’s tone and the pauses she takes during the interview. Confidence bolstered at camp is seen as letting the yougn teen formulate her thoughts and articulate them powerfully without apology. West says the arts for this student are not what some consider “the underdog, a hobby, mere entertainment.”
Collectively, their two voices may champion the idea that performance art at AileyCamp is a path to lifelong learning, well-being, expressivity and enriched relationships. For more details, visit calperformances.org/community/aileycamp online.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.