A Day in the Life of an AileyCamper
Behind the Scenes of Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp’s 21st Year
Video by Tiffany Valvo, Cal Performances’ Social Media and Digital Content Specialist
Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp is a joyful and rigorous six-week program, free to youth ages 11 to 14, that has been hosted by Cal Performances for 21 years! Conceived by Alvin Ailey himself, the camp is designed to use dance as a vehicle for personal development, and cultivates a supportive community where young people can connect meaningfully with each other and with caring adults, express themselves creatively, and experience the transformative power of dance.
Although schedules vary and students don’t have each class every day, AileyCampers receive daily training from experienced teaching artists in four major dance forms: modern, ballet, jazz, and African dance. They also explore creative writing and the visual arts in creative communications class, and they enhance their social and emotional development through a personal development course.
AileyCamp is a truly inspirational and exciting experience for the campers—and what better way to demonstrate this than by giving you a look at the day-to-day magic taking place right here on the UC Berkeley campus? On June 25, we followed Berkeley/Oakland AileyCampers around to see what a day in their life is like and got some direct feedback from a wonderful returning camper as well!
For more information on AileyCamp—including how to have a child apply to the program, how to sponsor a child’s free tuition, or how to attend the campers’ final performance later this week—visit calperformances.org/aileycamp.
