Tuesday 31 July 2007

Usdan celebrates 40 years as a cultural camp icon

Say "summer day camp" to just about anyone and you'll evoke memories of thick-forested woodlands or long morning bus rides with chattering pals. For Jane Monheit, something else comes to mind: rejection. Boundless, if character-building, rejection.

The twice-Grammy nominated jazz singer auditioned for musicals in 1990 and '91 while attending the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Wheatley Heights. "Twelfth Night". "Pippin". "The Roar of the Greasepaint". She didn't win roles in any of them. "At Usdan, I learned how to be a small fish," the Oakdale native, now 29, said recently from a tour stop in California. "It's where I learned that a lot of work and study goes into any performance, and that success wasn't going to be easy."

Something of a Tanglewood for the 6- to 18-year-old set, Usdan was formed in 1968 as a place to introduce children to the arts. It was modeled after the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies sleepaway camp at Interlochen, Mich., though it is a secular group with a diverse student body. Real estate millionaire Samuel Lemberg gave the initial $1-million donation to build the camp, asking that it be named for his daughter, the late Suzanne Usdan, and her husband, Nathaniel.

Although many of Usdan's alumni have forged careers in the arts, Usdan officials stress that their mission is not to prepare campers for such a path. Rather, says executive director Dale Lewis, "the purpose is for kids who love the arts to study with wonderful professionals and to have the arts as a companion for life." The 150-member faculty includes the artistic director of the Ballet San Jose, a Rockette and the former head of the Joffrey Ballet School.

The camp offers "majors" in seven disciplines: music, art, theater, dance, writing, nature and chess. Within each group there are specific programs, such as classical guitar, cartooning, digital photography and ballet, for various skill levels. Students study their major for two hours every day and the minor for one.

The 50,000 "graduates" of Usdan are represented in every major orchestra and dance company in the country. Well-known former campers include Natalie Portman and Mariah Carey, who, as a first-year student in 1980, played Hodel, Tevye's daughter, in "Fiddler on the Roof". Echoes of Monheit's experience? Carey, in a visit back a few years ago, kvetched that she only made understudy in the class production the next year: "I felt kind of foiled," the pop star told Newsday in 1998. "But not having a lead role gave me a chance to have a lot of fun that summer."

(excerpt from Newsday.com)



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