Summer Camps & Programs

Program Description

Brant Lake Dance Centre

Summer Programs
Brant Lake, New York

		Program Description Program Overview Visit Web Site Get Free Info See Photos

For More Information, Contact
Kirstin Been Spielman
Brant Lake Dance Centre
7586 State Route 8
Brant Lake, New York 12815
518-494-2406
Fax: 518-494-7372
http://www.blcdance.com
E-mail: brantlakec@aol.com

Type of Program: Dance for girls in a coeducational setting
Participants: Girls, ages 10–16
Enrollment: 60
Program Dates: June 28–August 15
Head of Program: Kirstin Been Spielman, Director

Location

The Dance Centre is located adjacent to Brant Lake Camp for Boys, with which it is affiliated. The campus is on Brant Lake, a 6-mile-long, crystal-clear lake in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, within the Adirondack Park.

Background and Philosophy

The goal is to provide a high-quality experience for girls with an interest in dance. The Dance Centre helps the girls plan a fun program while ensuring that they can broaden and strengthen their skills in dance. When they are not dancing, there are many activities from which campers may choose. The staff is well aware that teenagers need freedom of choice coupled with close, warm guidance and supervision. Brant Lake is a wonderful place for an active teenage girl. She does not have to be headed for a lifelong pursuit of dance, although Brant Lake does have some noted alumni, and superb instruction is offered at all levels.
    The girls are asked to set goals for their stay at camp, and they design their own schedules each day. Kirstin Been Spielman, the Dance Centre’s director, helps guide each girl to achieve those goals as needed. Brant Lake’s experienced and mature staff members provide guidance that leads to a safe, healthy, rewarding, and memorable summer.
    Brant Lake Camp for Boys, part of one family since 1917, has enjoyed an outstanding reputation, not just for its beauty and fine facilities but also because of its guidance and fine supervision. The same high standards have been upheld for the Dance Centre since its inception in 1980.

Program Offerings

Dance: The girls choose from top-quality professional teachers in the disciplines of ballet, modern, tap, and jazz. The program offers beginner through advanced classes. Girls can take up to 5 hours of dance a day if they wish, with a required minimum of 1 hour a day. Hip-hop, yoga, Pilates, improvisation, and choreography are also offered as workshops for the girls.
    Brant Lake hires dance teachers who not only are wonderful professional dancers but also know how to teach dance, especially to teenagers.
    Sharon Gersten Luckman, founder of Brant Lake’s Dance Centre, has created an intensive, professional dance program where teens get guidance, have lots of fun, and socialize in a healthy atmosphere. Sharon is currently the Executive Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and was formerly the Director of Dance at the 92nd Street Y.
Tennis: All lessons are ability grouped. There are clinics, group lessons (with a maximum of 4 per court), and intensives (with 1 pro per 2 girls). Court time is available throughout the day and evening.
    Brant Lake has more than 20 tennis instructors (varsity players with teaching experience) and 5 tennis pros. The thirteen clay and three hard courts are beautifully maintained in picturesque settings.
Waterfront: Few camps in the United States offer as extensive a waterfront program as Brant Lake. The girls receive excellent instruction and supervision in swimming, sailing, boating, waterskiing, canoeing, and kayaking. Brant Lake, which is crystal clear with a lovely sand bottom, is ideally suited to learning and participating in these water sports.
Fine arts: There is a choice of wood crafts, papermaking, leathercraft, weaving, painting, drawing, sculpture, jewelry, photography, and video in the arts facility.
Performing arts: There are Wednesday and Saturday variety shows that include singing, dancing, and drama. There is a “works-in-progress” performance at the end of each session. This performance is a culmination of the work that has taken place in the various dance classes.
Sports: The sports program provides both instruction and games to those who are interested. Land sports include tennis, basketball, golf, wall climbing, volleyball, jogging, and fitness training. Water sports include swimming, waterskiing, sailing, canoeing, and boating. Brant Lake Camp’s wonderful boys’ instructors and fields enrich and strengthen the sports program.

Enrollment

Girls ages 10–16 come from all over the country and all around the world. Sessions are 3½ or 7 weeks.

Extra Opportunities and Activities

Evening activities vary daily. Once a week, the group travels to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to enjoy a dance performance, a rock concert, or a play. On other evenings, girls may choose from movies, coed activities, dance, or art electives, or they may rehearse for the weekly musical or talent show. On certain evenings, bunks have campfires or run their own separate activities. Coed events are casual, supervised, and fun.
    The Sunday program provides for a change of pace, a time for relaxation after a busy week. Brunch is followed by a schedule of special workshops and classes that are taught by experienced and talented dance teachers. The late afternoon offers coed waterfront and other activities, a barbecue, and an evening movie.
    Trip day is one day each week. Girls may go to such local attractions as Lake George, Saratoga, Lake Placid, or Great Escape theme park. They may also choose a bicycling trip through the countryside, a mountain hike, or an overnight camping trip on a private mountain nearby.

Facilities

The Centre’s dance and lodging facilities are beautifully designed to fit the special needs of its campers. The upper level of the Dance Lodge contains a spacious, professional studio overlooking peaceful woods. A second studio for tap is housed in a beautifully restored barn. A third dance studio in the field house has a professional vinyl floor. On the main level of the lodge is a lovely living room that serves as a communal lounge for the girls, two large dormitory-style bunks, and two bathrooms (each with sinks, showers, and toilets). Three other bunks provide the same homey atmosphere and facilities. Here the girls live with others their own age and 2 counselors per bunk. The girls eat breakfast and lunch in a beautiful new pine-paneled, Adirondack-style dining room, which was completed in 2005. Healthy snacks and juice are available there throughout the day. Dinner is served in the dining hall on the boys’ campus.
    In addition to this, the Dance Centre shares many of the numerous outstanding indoor and outdoor facilities with Brant Lake Camp for Boys.

Staff

In addition to the professional dance staff, the camp hires experienced, mature counselors. Brant Lake looks for experienced women who can guide teenage girls in making appropriate decisions in a fun, safe, and compassionate way. Each staff member is personally interviewed; the average age of the staff is 22. At all times, the girls are supervised by these mature counselors, who understand that teenagers are ready to make many of their own decisions and able to set their own goals.

Medical Care

The Health Center is fully equipped and has 4 nurses and 1 doctor in residence throughout the season. In addition, most counselors are certified in first aid and CPR.

Costs

Tuition in 2008 is approximately $4500 for one session and $7900 for all seven weeks. Extra costs are incurred for transportation and spending money.

Transportation

Girls may take the chartered bus (from New York City) or fly to the Albany airport, where they are met by a staff member, or parents may drive them to camp.