Dance camps

[MadamSamba]

I nearly died of excitement when I heard about a studio here in Australia offering a weekend dance camp. My goodness, two days of solid dancing, from 8am till "late", which apparently means around 3am. Either way, I'd do it in a flash next year.
I was just wondering how many of you had been on dance camps (apparently they're far more common in other parts of the world) and what you learned on them and what fun experiences you had. I'm counting the weeks (only 51 left) until next year's camp! :)

[dancersdreamland]

How fun!!!!

I've never been to a dance "camp," however, it sounds similar to a dance "workshop."

I attended a belly dance workshop earlier this month. It was a full day consisting of learning a 5 minute belly dance routine (this took about 8 hours) with a performance show in the evening (another 2 hours). It was GREAT, and I can hardly wait until next year as well.

The days will pass quickly and next here will be here before you (or I) know it!

[Sagitta]

We have had swing dance weekends in Ithaca and the surrounding area: one with Frankie Manning in Syracuse, and another with John Lindo and WCS swing in Ithaca. They usually comprise of workshops during the day followed by dancing at night. People come from all over for these, and so people also host visitors for the weekend. Now that I think about it there was a smaller scale salsa weekend in Tioga too, that was a blast.

Schedule has been:
Friday -- registration, social dance
Saturday -- workshops late morning to evening, followed by dance
Sunday -- workshops

I've never personally attended all the workshops as I am a mere beginner, BUT it's been a lot of fun as I've learnt a lot, and been inspired. Sometimes seeing and hanging out with the same people can get to you and you need to visit with new people.

[jon]

"Camp" is open to interpretation. There are lots of swing and country and hustle and salsa dance events in the US with workshops, social dancing, and competitions, but they don't use the "camp" term.

The only self-labelled "Dance Camp" I've been to is at Brigham Young University, and consisted of 5 days of 9-5 classes, practice in the evening, and about 2 hours of social dancing the last evening. Useful for learning if you can retain much of the information, and great value for money, but I eventually realized I was having far more fun at events that focused on social dancing.

[SDsalsaguy]

I tend to agree Jon, camps are something slightly different. Unlike workshops there are typically multiple instructors for multiple levels running simultaneously and the focus is on classes, not social dancing (unlike, sa, a salsa congress).

[MadamSamba]

Yeah, I think the dancing population of the US lends itself to many more "weekends" and "congresses" of all types, but, the camp I mentioned for example, only had 70 people attend.

Mind you, from what I've heard it was an absolute blast and I'm still hanging to attend next year's one. :D

DD and Saggita, your belly-dancing and swing weekends sounded fabulous!!! I wanna go too!!!

[pygmalion]

I'm pretty lucky in that respect, since I live in the number one tourist destination in the world. AND a pretty active dance town, to boot. There are always things going on here, in my backyard -- camps, congresses, workshops, weekends, and comps of all sorts.

[JoyHerndon]

I go to dance camp every year in feb. Silver Springs, Fl. from friday evening, all day saturday,sunday,part on monday..We have great teachers from around the world..learn all about folk dancing,learn lots of dances. I wouldn't miss it for the world...food is furnish, sleep in cambins.. want to come..e-mail me.