Camp Hits the Road!
Traveling is one of the most universal elements of circus life and this week at camp we followed in that time honored tradition! Our travels began on Saturday when we boarded buses and headed over to Hosmer Point (HP), a camp run through the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in neighboring Craftsbury, VT. HP is a more typical outdoor summer camp so they were thrilled to learn some circus-y things from our campers. In reciprocal we enjoyed one of HP’s favorite camp games, a tag type game with herbivores, carnivores, humans and others as the cast of characters. After the game we enjoyed a beach-side dinner and a fire with s’mores to finish the night. We are so excited to start what will hopefully be a long standing tradition of community building with neighboring camps in the Northeast Kingdom.
Our roadshow campers spent the first week of camp working on a show that displays their ground-based skills, like juggling clowning, and acrobatics. The 2016 Jr. Roadshow theme was the 70’s with hippies, dancers, and political business-people relevant to the time period. And like all things Smirkus, Jr. Roadshow has some amazing talent at its core. The roadshow is a community outreach program, so most of the destinations are nursing homes, childcare facilities and public parks. Suzanne Santos, the director of Jr. Roadshow (and Session V Roadshow) says the roadshow is all about the performers making a connection with the audience. But it is also a gateway to getting much needed experience performing in front of crowds and cameras, a benefit unique to Smirkus, setting it apart from other circus camps. These skills, like many that the campers learn at camp, is applicable not only their achieving their circus goals, but to their personal lives as well.
As we near the end of Session IV and the campers begin to look down the road to the end of their summer at Smirkus Camp, they will all go home more confident, empowered, and ready to face the road ahead of them with friends for life and magical memories.
Your blogger for the road,
-Aaron
Filed under: Smirkus Camp 
Source: Smirkus Camp Feed
Camp Hits the Road!