Not Your Mother's Skateboarding Camp: Interviews at the National Teen Institute

This set of conversations happened August 1, 2002, at the National Teen Institute at the University of Maryland, July 28-August 1. The institute was part of "Hallelujah/USA." the culminating event in the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's national community performance initiative.

		clockwise from top left: Scott Schopler, Kamilla Hassen, Jessica Stamler, Araina Bidleman, Katia Robinson. photos by Linda Burnham

Linda Burnham: Your name?

Katia Robinson: Katia Danai Robinson.

LB: How did you get involved with "Hallelujah"?

KR: My dance teacher organized a liturgical dance collective and she started a workshop and she said we were going to be in the Liz Lerman performance [in Michigan].

LB: You got to be a star in that piece. What did you think about it?

KR: I liked it a lot. I was in the highway section and I did a shout.

LB: How old are you now?

KR: I'm 14.

LB: Did you perform at the liturgical dance conference in Detroit?

KR: Yes.

LB: Do you want to be a dancer?

KR: I want to be an actress, so I'll probably have to dance.

LB: Are you dancing in school?

KR: I did a mosaic collage, I did these summer classes, and when I go to high school I'm going to be in a lot of stuff

LB: Are you enjoying being here? Are you staying in the dorms?

KR We're staying at somebody's house.

LB: Are you excited about the performance tonight?

KR: Yes.

Scott Schopler: I'm her cousin. (Points at Amina Hassen.) My mom told me this was a skateboarding camp

LB: So, is it a skateboarding camp?

SS: Far from it.

LB: Are you going to be in the performance tonight?

SS: Yes.

LB: So, what do you think about this? Are you a famous dancer already?

SS: No, I'm far from that, too. It's not as bad as I expected. See, she told me it was a skateboarding camp, and two weeks after I signed up, "Oh, by the way, Scott, it's a dancing camp." She's paying for it, though. She's paying for her mistakes. She's buying me stuff.

LB: Why didn't you just bail? Why did you stay?

SS: Because she's buying me stuff.

LB: Have you learned anything?

SS: Yeah, I can dance a little.

LB: I was watching you. I liked some of the stuff you were doing when we had a show-and-tell and you were shadowing one of the older dancers and following her movements. That was really beautiful. I really loved it. Maybe skateboarding trained you to dance.

SS: Maybe.

LB: And this is your cousin? What's your name?

Amina Hassen: Amina Hassen.

LB: And you've been taking classes over at the Dance Exchange along with your mother?

AH: Just with my sister. She's two years older than I am.

LB: Is it a teen class?

AH: Teen Exchange. When I was younger, I did Youth Exchange.

LB: So, how many years have you been taking?

AH: I don't really know.

LB: Have you done any performances for an audience?

AH: Yeah.

LB: How old are you?

AH: 14

LB: How old are you?

SS: 13.

LB: Do you plan to be a dancer?

AH: It's fun, but I don't think about it as a profession. I just like it as a hobby.

LB: What are you studying?

AH: Communication arts.

LB: Tell me your name.

Lily DeArmon: I'm Lily DeArmon.

LB: Where are you from?

LD: I dance with Amina at the Exchange. I've been there four years. It's been fun.

LB: You're used to performing and all that.

LD: It's different each time. I've been doing it for a while.

LB: Have you studied with anybody else?

LD: I started when I was a little kid, doing little-kid dancing, and I did some ballet and stuff, I forget the names of the companies, though. I came here [Dance Exchange] when I was 11.

LB: Do you have anything to say about their style at the Dance Exchange?

LD: I like their process and I think they really have a lot of creativity and I really enjoy working with all the company members.

LB: You probably know them all pretty well.

LD: Most of them teach us.

LB: Are you going to dance when you grown up?

LD: I think I want to go to a liberal-arts college and do some dancing, but I don't know about making a career out of it. I like math a fair amount, even though I'm not so good at it. I like it when I'm good at it.

LB: Wow, dancing math students. Tell me your name.

Araina Bidleman: Araina Bidleman.

LB: You were in the Greensboro "Hallelujah." How old are you?

AB: 13

LB: Where do you go to school?

AB: I live in Winston-Salem and I go to the Downtown Middle School.

LB: Did any of the stuff that you contributed wind up in the piece?

AB: There's one part where Elizabeth and I did a duet and I talked about moving all the time.

LB: I remember that. Were you happy with the way that came out?

AB: Yes. It was fun.

LB: They didn't do much advertising.

AB: Yeah, I know, All the newspaper were supposed advertise it and something happened and they decided they didn't want to any more.

LB: What was your favorite part of the whole process?

AB: I liked the little games they use to get us moving. Like, Blind Lead is where you have a partner and you lead them around the room with their eyes closed. And there are different ways to lead them, like, you can lead them with your finger or your elbow or pull them by the nose or something. And it's really fun, both to find new ways to lead them and to be led.

LB: Have you studied dance before?

AB: I've been taking acting and dance for eight years, and I've been taking Indian dance for five and Irish step dance for two. And in between I had a year or two of ballet, but I didn't like that.

LB: Sounds like you're going to be a dancer?

AB: I don't know. My mom's a dancer. I don't know if I really want to end up with her budget.

LB: What's her name?

AB: Zita Bidleman.

LB: So, you know intimately the problems of the dancer? What are you going to do with all this dance you have under your belt?

AB: I'm thinking about going into theater and still do a little bit of dance on the side.

LB: Is that going to help with theater?

AB: It helps to be able to pick up choreography fast and to be able to understand how the body works so you don't break anything while doing the dance.

LB: I'm amazed how quickly you all learn these routines. That's got be good for the brain.

AB: Part of it is that we help make them. So, the making process really helps you remember. And then sometimes we make them and we teach other people, so it really has us think about how it works, and then we just drill over and over and over.

Linda Frye Burnham is co-director of the Community Arts Network.

Original CAN/API publication: March 2003