At the time when the Holiday Ball & Dance Camp began, the idea was very novel—bring in many dance champions to teach workshops and private lessons for an extended period, followed by the Holiday Ball competition where we could witness and try out many of these impressive skills. Having access to a great amount of information over many days made a difference in one's dancing at a time when new information was slow to come by.
Over the years, numerous dance camps have come onto the scene and now, with the world able to access high volumes of information via the internet, the questions arise:
Has the quality of our dancing really improved or do we simply know more?
Has all this information made a difference to the individuality of dancers?
Unfortunately, the common practice at most dance camps has been to cover numerous topics in an effort to attract many dancers. What we know as former champions and experienced dancers ourselves, is that it's far more beneficial to go deeply into a certain area as opposed to shalowly across many surfaces. Simply having touched on a topic is not nearly enough to make a difference.
Because we believe making a difference to be the most important reason to hold a dance camp, this year's Holiday Ball & Dance Camp will present one theme, "Exploring the Dancers Values and Beliefs".
Through lectures and guided workshops this broad topic will be the focus of the week supported by a variety of exercises, discussions and practical application.
As Ruud Vermeij offers,"This workshop stimulates you to be skillful and become thoughtful of your automatic patterns in order to become free and choose your movement habits in dance. The following quotes focus awareness on your habits…
Watch your thoughts, for they become words
Watch your words, for they become actions
Watch your actions, for they become habits
Watch your habits, for they become character
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny"