The Cal summer class named for famed Black choreographer Alvin Ailey also teaches social awareness and works to instill self-confidence.
Students in this summer’s Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp rehearse a scene from famed Black choreographer Alvin Ailey’s iconic dance work “Revelations” on Alameda’s Crown Beach. Since the first six-week summer AileyCamp was held on the UC Berkeley campus in 2002, more than 1,200 East Bay youths have participated in professional-level dance instruction, field trips and workshops geared toward building self-esteem, creative expression, critical thinking, communication and leadership.
With all the upbeat enthusiasm at the camp, it’s also hard work, especially during the first week. Parker said the conditioning is intense and that the crunches and other core work left her sore but eventually stronger. “They’re under stress, working hard and managing relationships with not only peers but staff and their families. They make decisions every day — it’s so much more than dance.”
Teixeira emphasized that what the campers are receiving that could serve as a model for schools and other learning institutions is history placed in context. She said that when excerpts from Ailey’s “Revelations” are restaged by Nasha Thomas and Torens Johnson, campers join a lineage of celebrated dance artists and enjoy access to seminal music like the “Revelations” pieces “I Been Buked” and “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham.
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