Singing Dancing in the Dining Hall All Summer Long . . .

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The day after I returned from Halifax, I headed off to camp.

This summer was my 15th summer at Centauri and it was the camp's 15th anniversary. There's three of us - myself, Jordi and JM - who were all campers the first year the camp opened and have returned each summer until now, when we are all arts program directors. In the spring, the camp held a 15 hour performance marathon with staff members, past and present, to raise money to build a school in on the India/Nepal border. And all summer long we worked to continue to make camp a great place for the campers.

It was such a great summer. After so many trying months at sea, I was just so relieved and happy to be back doing work that I love in a great community. I taught dance in session two, musical theatre dance in session three and musical theatre (triple threat) in session four. I had so many phenomenal campers this year. They worked incredibly hard for me and we put on some great shows. I'm really proud of the work that I did with them and the choreography I did.

I ran some camp-wide events this year, though far fewer than previous summers. This was okay with me. I felt like I could do solid work with the ones I did run. One of these evenings was inspired by the Twilight Saga books, where the entire camp were vampires and werewolves and staff members played the Cullen family.

The camp staff was also really great this year. I had an especially memorable summer with my fellow arts program directors. We had lovely dinners out on days off, had a big night out to see Harry Potter, threw a surprise engagement party for our camp nurse and it seemed we did endless silly things that entertained us but also entertained the campers. One of these highlights - a seemingly spontaneous performance of the entire opening song from Beauty and the Beast in the dining hall one day at lunch. The staff kept me laughing all summer.

This is the first year in quite awhile that I wasn't there for the entire summer. Taking session one off to plan and travel to Halifax was the right decision for me. It meant I came to camp more ready to be there than I had felt in years. But it made the summer feel especially fast and short.

After a couple of exhausting days of clean-up, I am now at home. But not for long . . . Tomorrow I am heading to Vancouver! Thanks to another flight sale, I am taking another short vacation, this time to the other side of the country.

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Photos

Fitz!
The program director team, session three

"The Dance"
Session Two Dance Performance, our dance improv piece

"Let's Go Bowling"
Session Two Dance Performance, our musical theatre dance

Night Off - Harry Potter!
Oh Dumbledore . . .

"One: Singular Sensation"
Session Three Musical Theatre Dance Performance, from A Chorus Line

"Hair"
Session Three Musical Theatre Dance Performance, from Hair

Campfire
with my session three dancers

"Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats"
Session Four Musical Theatre Performance, from Cats

"La Vie Boheme"
Session Four Musical Theatre Performance, from Rent

Surprise Engagement Party!
Christina got engaged, so we threw a party!

Grease
Broadway spirit supper, we were Grease.

Staff Training Spirit Supper
I was a criminal.