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NGI Recipient: Alice Kaufman

Session Attended: CDS Boston Centre - July 4th Weekend (2007)

Dear Country Dance Society and Pinewoods Camp Inc,

I want to thank all of you who allowed me to attend Pinewoods Camp’s July 4th Weekend Session. I have heard about Pinewoods from many friends over the years. Everyone comes home every summer telling me how much they enjoyed camp and how much they learned. I was thrilled to be able to have a similar experience.

Just going to Pinewoods, meeting campers and crew, learning Pinewoods traditions, and falling into a Pinewoods way of life was incredible. The community was so warm and welcoming, I was so glad I could have my own niche in it.

I also really enjoyed the opportunity to take classes and participate in forms of dance I’m rarely exposed to. For that reason the highlight of my weekend was Kari’s English Clogging class. I Rapper Dance, and I’ve always had good control over my feet, but with Kari I got to learn traditional steps and a pattern that had been written by an amazing clogger before I was born, which was an incredible and new experience. I learned a more traditional form of percussive dance than I had hitherto come across. I learned new ways in which my feet could make noise, and how to control those and other noises better than I could before.

I’m really grateful that I got to have this experience and I really hope I’ll be able to return to July Fourth Weekend in future years.