It's Dancing with the Counselors Week!!

 This is the week I wish I was adept at video recording.  Of course, I’m not remotely capable of operating a video camera or whatever it is called.  Fortunately, we have several staff members who are talented enough to keep the action within the frame.  Why is this week the week for video recording?  This is Dancing with the Counselors Week!

We tell the campers it’s a competition, but don’t ask me about the criteria.  Wait . . . I’m ahead of myself, which isn’t unusual.  How do we select the contestants?  The key word for the selection process is random.  Counselors are selected at random; then they will tell the committee yea or nay.  Campers’ names are drawn from a bucket.  You can’t get more random than that. 

Now, back to the criteria – skill helps, but cute is better.  Also, glitter and costumes that don’t fit can sway the crowd.  The main criteria is, “does the crowd like the act?”  This makes judging almost impossible since all the acts receive loud and long ovations.  One other detail I forgot to mention is that initially each group consisted of two performers – one camper and one counselor, but we didn’t discourage campers from drafting their friends to perform.  One camper had lots of “friends” because we had about 20% of the camp on stage.  Did I mention the criteria for this contest was fuzzy?

The Dancing with the Counselors Week has a second component.  On Friday, all the groups perform a dance routine which their counselors put together.  All week, the individual contestants and whole groups spend their free time working on their routines.   Some groups have a routine complete with costumes and props.  Actually, the preparation for the routines on Friday is the most satisfactory part of the week.  The work that goes into a 45 – 60 second performance is as much fun as the performance itself.  That’s the wonder of Dancing with the Counselors – how much fun everyone has.  The performers, the audience and the parents on Friday all have a good time.  It doesn’t matter if the campers on stage are dancing in perfect time to the music or if they’re completely out of step.  If they’re smiling because they are having fun, that’s all that matters!

-- Joe Rays Dancing