Where to go: BLUE LAKE - Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp

Dance Magazine, Jan, 1999 by Caitlin Sims

New York Training on Little Blue Lake

Amanda McKerrow rubs her chin thoughtfully. A principal with American Ballet Theatre, she is coaching younger dancers in the role of Aurora from The Sleeping Beauty, as ABT principal John Gardner looks on. The six dancers move carefully through the delicate pointe work, with hopeful sidelong glances at McKerrow. "Remember, you're a princess," she urges them. "Here Aurora is remembering her life. Use your hands. Good."

Finishing the music, the accompanist looks at his watch meaningfully and taps the Steinway grand as the would-be Auroras plead for one more run-through. A dozen other young women, with legs draped over the barres, watch carefully. On this day, the air in the large, sunny new studio--complete with sprung floors--is thick with perspiration.

But this coaching is not taking place at the Metropolitan Opera House, where McKerrow and Gardner wow audiences each May and June during the company's spring season. Nor is it even at ABT's downtown studios. McKerrow and her students are at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, an innovative summer dance program in the woods of northern Michigan.

"Blue Lake gives kids a unique experience," says Jefferson Baum, BLFAC's dance director. The camp houses more than 4,000 students each summer in four two-week sessions. Dancers mix with orchestra, band, piano, and art students on the shores of Little Blue Lake, which is surrounded by 1,200 acres of preserved forest. The dirt path leading to the dance facility winds through the forest, passing open-air gazebos in which afternoon music seminars are held.

"I think that this kind of atmosphere is great for learning," says McKerrow, "because there is no television and no phone. I was so impressed with the progress my students made on the variation I gave them. They didn't go home and watch TV or hang out with their friends. Instead they went over the variation.

The dance program is designed so that students get intense training, yet they still have time to enjoy their surroundings and take an elective in music or art. "We don't have the kids dancing from nine in the morning until nine at night, says Baum. "There are a lot of schools where they do, but that is not necessary. Here they have free time, since they're kids." From 8:30 A.M. until noon, the students concentrate on ballet, starting with a two-hour technique class, then moving on to conditioning for the boys and pointe for the girls, completing the morning with a variations or partnering class. After lunch there is a one-and-a-half-hour modern or jazz class, then free time, and an hour for an elective. After dinner, activities include concerts, plays, and recitals in the Stewart Music Shell, or all-camp sings, talent shows, carnivals, dances, and campfires.

Even during the time off, however, many of the dancers make their way back to the studio. "After lunch we have a break, but all the dancers like to come down here and work on things for the talent show," says Crissy Ortiz, age 16. "We also goof off and try to challenge each other and see who can do better turns. The dancers all bond outside of class. Even when we are at the main camp, we find each other and sometimes we partner each other in our tennis shoes."

One of the most remarkable aspects of Blue Lake's dance program, especially given its location, is the caliber of the instructors. Gregarious and outgoing, thirty-seven-year-old Baum has made contacts all over the world in the twenty years he has been in the business. A former dancer with Ballet de Monte-Carlo, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Arizona, Santa Fe Opera Ballet, and Metropolitan Opera Ballet, he is currently a teacher at Steps on Broadway in New York City.

This network has enabled him to construct a star-studded faculty at Blue Lake, which has included, among others, Duncan Noble from North Carolina School of the Arts (Baum's alma mater); Michael Vernon from Steps on Broadway; Amanda Edge and Katrina Killian of New York City Ballet; Jason Hartley (a Blue Lake alum)from American Repertory Ballet; Patrick Johnson, formerly of Dance Theatre of Harlem; Alexi Lapshin from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens; Joe Fritz from the Metropolitan Opera Ballet; and Ramon Flowers, a former dancer with Bejart who is currently in the Adventures in Motion Pictures production of Swan Lake on Broadway.

"I look for people like Amanda and John, dancers who are at the top of their profession right now, but who also happen to be excellent teachers," says Baum. "That is a rare quality. Ramon is also right in the thick of it right now, and he also happens to be an excellent teacher. So the kids can ask questions, like `What's it like to dance on Broadway?' I also look for instructors, like Linda Graham and Tammy Thomas, who are well known for teaching modern and jazz." Contact with a famous dancer is a thrill for the students.

"You see them dance on TV, then they are right in front of you and are talking to you and giving you corrections," says Ortiz. "You want to impress them and you try to absorb everything you can from them."