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Honoring Juilliard's Ties to America's Oldest Performing Arts Camp By CHRISTINA PAOLUCCI
As a Juilliard student, I spent my summers in New York, taking ballet and modern dance classes. I would toil away in the studio for hours and walk home from the subway. When the fall semester began, I was just as exhausted as when I left the previous May. Some of my fellow classmates spent their summer studying dance as I did, but I couldn't figure out why they returned so refreshed, and even more focused than before. They had gone to a summer program called Perry-Mansfield. What was the secret of the place?
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| Ballet students at Perry-Mansfield in the 1920s. (Photo from Dr. Tricia Young, courtesy of Eleanor Bliss) |
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Since my student days at Juilliard, I have come to understand and appreciate what their summers at Perry-Mansfield were like, as I now am on the ballet faculty at the oldest summer performing arts venue in the country. Perry-Mansfield is located in Steamboat Springs, Colo., in a rustic "camp" environment. From the moment I arrive, I know I am in a magical place. The camp's historical ties to American dance, and Juilliard in particular, bring me a great sense of pride and renewed commitment to the arts. My artistic juices flow as I smell the crisp mountain air, which stimulates every nerve in my body. I know my days will be long and intense, yet I will sleep soundly every night in the peaceful night breeze which envelops my cabin.Portia Mansfield (1887-1979) and Charlotte Perry (1889-1983) met while at Smith College. Mansfield's passion was dance and Perry's was drama. After a trip to Colorado one summer, they decided to combine their love of the outdoors with their artistic focus and founded their camp in 1913. Self-reliant and resourceful, they not only organized everything and taught classes, but even acquired the woodworking skills to construct some of the buildings on their rustic 76-acre campus, along with furniture and sets and props for their productions. In the early part of the 20th century, it was unheard of for ladies to become entrepreneurs and outdoorswomen, let alone pursue dance and drama as a career. Their inspired integrity and unsurpassed work as creators, educators, and mentors have kept the school thriving, through their reign as directors and beyond. (Perry retired in 1964; Mansfield ran the school until 1976.)Along with dance (its original focus), the program now offers drama, musical theater, creative writing, art, and horseback riding. The traditions of the performing arts which they so respectfully brought together have shaped how dance in America has evolved today. Some of the world's most beloved artists served as faculty in the early days, while a number of emerging and reputable teachers make their mark at P-M now. The school even had its own dance company, which toured the American vaudeville circuit from 1922-30 and brought classical work to audiences all over the country.Mansfield and Perry nurtured young choreographic talent such as Agnes de Mille, José Limón, and Merce Cunningham. They also had dance composers John Cage and Louis Horst on their artistic staff. By the 1940s, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey, Harriet Ann Gray, and Hanya Holm (to name a few) were faculty members at P-M as well. Many of these teachers and performers worked at Juilliard during the academic year. Sometimes, during a long day of teaching, I remember that I am working in a studio where de Mille made her dances for Rodeo. It is easy to see how the Western country inspired her, which in turn motivates me in my own work.My challenges at P-M lie in the classroom, as I am faced with varying degrees of ability in the children's ballet classes. The students come from all over the country, and their training ranges from recreational dance to stylized ballet. I have only four weeks of daily classes to help them work together as a group. Luckily, the Cecchetti training I study and am passionate about teaching helps me mold the classes with a common focus on achieving a specific skill level in ballet.
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| Christina Paolucci teaching junior level ballet classes at Perry-Mansfield, summer 2003. (Photo by Richard Finkelstein) |
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After a busy day of classes and rehearsals, I look forward to the cool, serene nights in the valley. I know that, after the evening's performance, I will be able to find someone on faculty, whether in dance or drama, to give me some suggestions or share thoughts on how things are going. Like the students, the faculty at P-M have varied backgrounds but a common goal. We all strive for excellence in our teaching, and search to inspire our students to love the arts. Perry-Mansfield is today the place its founders envisioned: a source of experiment, growth, courage, strength, and diversity of the arts in the natural, boundless setting of the Rocky Mountains.Heading the P-M dance faculty since 2001 is Linda Kent, a Juilliard faculty member with whom I worked very closely as a student. Linda is a very supportive and nurturing colleague. She has continued the tradition of Mansfield and Perry by bringing in teachers, choreographers, and performers from all over the country—many of whom are former Juilliard faculty or students. Though she is a modern dancer, she also has a respect for ballet, having studied with Antony Tudor, the great ballet master and choreographer of such masterpieces Jardin aux Lilas and Pillar of Fire.I feel proud that my work at Perry-Mansfield represents the third generation of Juilliard-trained dancers or faculty to make their mark here, and am especially happy that classical ballet is as valued in an interdisciplinary school today as it was 90 years ago. When Perry-Mansfield was launched, dances choreographed in the vein of Isadora Duncan were popular. Ballet training was not formally introduced in this country until the 1930s, when Lincoln Kirstein invited George Balanchine to found a school in America. Thus, the main concentration of the early P-M program was modern dance, but Mansfield—who had extensive classical ballet training at the Paris Opera Ballet School—made it possible for her students to study ballet as well, with each form of training complementing the other to make the students strong and versatile.Away from my computer and television, I spend my nights at P-M watching theatrical productions or writing letters instead of e-mails. My classes are in open-air studios, the original buildings built by Mansfield and Perry. As I work in the classroom, there is often time to take a break and let my students watch the horses as they run by the studio, or listen to the rain on the tin roofs. It is particularly rewarding to catch a double rainbow after the midday showers have subsided. The visual beauty is always a special part of the class and, no matter how hard we are all working, I don't want any of us—especially the city dwellers—to miss something as magical as a rainbow. I know these moments make a difference in my work.As a Juilliard-trained dancer and as a teacher, I highly respect the cross-platform performing arts program of Perry-Mansfield. I know that, had the artists of the early years of the camp not been inspired to create and to develop into renowned teachers, performers, and choreographers, such powerful institutions as Juilliard might not exist today. The schools complement each other, and I am proud to be a part of the historical lineage of both. I now return home at the end of a summer of hard work feeling inspired and excited about the dance world of which I am a part.For information about the camp, visit www.perry-mansfield.org.Christina Paolucci (BFA '95), a former principal dancer with New York Theater Ballet, is now company teacher at the Tallahassee Ballet in Florida.
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