Saturday, June 7, someone delivered 50 roses to the mansion at Belvoir Terrace. From Friday, June 6 to Sunday, June 8, alumnae from across the Belvoir Terrace Arts Camp’s 50 years took classes as they used to when they spent their summers in Lenox. Campers from the summers of 1956 and 1996 joined up to try photography, sculpture, swimming, tennis, ballet, modern and jazz dance, and music theatre.
Edna Schwartz opened her own dance school in the west end of Boston when she was 16 years old. She was a ballet dancer as well as an entrepreneur. She married later and had two daughters. When her younger daughter, a dancer, had a tough time at sports camps, Schwartz decided to make her own alternative: She started an arts camp at a time when banks did not like to lend money to women.
Her older daughter, Nancy Goldberg, became a counselor at the camp. Goldberg has now run the Belvoir Terrace Arts Camp for 35 years. Goldberg’s daughter, Schwartz’s granddaughter, Diane Marcus has helped her mother run the camp full time for 12 years.
Marcus said her grandmother came to the Berkshires because of Tanglewood and Jacob’s Pillow. Belvoir opened its first camping season in 1954. The camp taught, and teaches, fine art, dance, music, theatre, tennis, horseback riding and swimming. Campers can take up to 10 activities at a time. It is still the only single-sex, long-term residential program in the arts for girls in the country.
Girls age 9 to 16 spend seven weeks together at Belvoir. The campers range from beginners of all ages to dancers with the New York City Ballet, artists with portfolios, and musicians who played at Juilliard pre-college, Marcus said. This year, they will come from Brussels, Taiwan, Paris, Madrid, Brazil, Japan, and all across the United States: Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Florida and Maryland.
And some come from the Berkshires. Goldberg said Elizabeth Brundage, a writer in Richmond, came to the camp for only one year; Brundage said afterward it might have been the most pivotal year of her life, and sent her two daughters there.
Jamie Sampson, a camper from’92 to ‘96, spent the reunion Saturday taking classes like the ones she concentrated on as a camper: jazz and modern dance, music theatre and ceramics. “It’s like I never left,†she said.
She now has a master’s in nutrition, and hopes to go into dance therapy, or to go into sports nutrition and work with the New York Yankees. Her mother also went to the camp. Marcus and Goldberg put together albums of camp pictures of camp pictures going back to the camp’s first years, for the alumnae to look through. Sampson found a picture of her mother when her mother was 14.
A circle of younger campers sat indoors on the mansion stairs. Leigh Pollack, ‘89 to ‘96, said that, at Belvoir, she had become an actress and a singer. A week before the reunion, someone had asked her to audition for a performance of Sweeney Todd: She would shortly audition for a music theater performance for the first time since her camp days. She just graduated from the University of Miami in retail, she said. This weekend had reawakened her interest in theater.
Joey Koch, ‘89 to ’92, who spent her camp days between acting, music theater and tennis, took classes in sculpting and painting at the reunion. She had never taken a sculpting class before, she said. She had begun to take painting during her last year at the camp. “I’m a lawyer living in Manhattan now,†she said. “It’s great to relax.†And she repeated, “It’s like I never left.â€
Alyssa Feinsmith, ‘88 to ‘95, said, “It’s such a part of your life — How can you not come back? I don’t feel 23. I feel like I’m 14.â€
In this break between morning and afternoon classes, Goldberg led a discussion group with older alumnae. One remembered being the youngest camper in her first year. She had learned charcoal drawing, she said. She still found it a way to relax. She had lost touch with Belvoir, she said, and that had been a mistake. She taught third-graders now, and she hoped to move into teaching art.
Several women talked about their fathers and brothers reacting to the idea of a girls’ art camp. One woman had been to sports camps before she came to Belvoir, and her father and brother took a doubtful view of Belvoir at first. But she found she could dance all day there and still play tennis against kids at tennis camps — and win. In her last year, thanks to a knee injury, she took a photography course. She had kept with it in high school, she said and she was now pursuing it at Brown University.
People kept saying Belvoir had changed their lives, Goldberg said. A psychiatrist said the camp had been more important than her college years.
Karen Weisburg Seeche, ‘56-’61, and Sandy Weisburg Ropper, ‘60-’66, sisters, went to Belvoir and sent their daughters after them. Talent counted for something, they said, but all they really needed was enthusiasm. Neither of them ever had a dancer’s build, but it had not mattered. They had wholeheartedly enjoyed Belvoir, and their parents enjoyed seeing their excitement.
Ropper remembered one afternoon in the dance studio. She was coming across the diagonal in some kind of a dance move. Edna Schwartz was watching. “She said, ‘That was so great.’ I said ‘Edna, I just love this.’â€
Schwartz was before her time, Seeche and Ropper said — a very special woman. She was the only woman who owned a camp in the Berkshires then. Not many do now. Schwartz’s husband ran his own business and let her run hers. “He must have supported her dream, though,†Seeche said. “He was a sweet soul. I miss Edna. I can still see her coming up the hill in her golf cart. ...â€
Ropper’s daughter will to join the camp staff this year. Belvoir had a real family feeling, Ropper and Seeche said, a sense of longevity — like the camp’s little swimming pool with the frog. Ropper said she thought it was huge when she went there as a camper. Seeche said she had chipped a tooth on it.
Ropper remembered training for water ballet. Whenever she heard Exodus on the radio, she said, she felt like she was doing a jack knife kick in synchronized swimming.
Seeche and Ropper said they believed their years here were very important. “You only see these things in hindsight,†they said. The camp approved and encouraged all of their endeavors. The staff had an attitude about approaching challenges and taking risks: “It will be okay, you can do it, it will work out.â€
Seeche and Ropper had met kids from the School of American Ballet who said they could not risk anything at the school; it was too competitive there.
Belvoir focused on every individual camper, Seeche said, and turned out poised, confident women. It did not base camp life around bunks and competitions. The staff knew everyone and cared for everyone.
Belvoir has approximately 200 campers and 100 staff now — a 2-1 ratio of campers to staff. The staff only work 15 to 20 hours a week.
The staff had time to listen, Seeche and Ropper said. And the campers got away from all electronic devices for a while. Belvoir taught support, self-esteem, creativity and confidence.
Even if a camper did not eventually send her children, Ropper said, she would pass camp experience on to her children. One counselor said, in the discussion, that her staff training affected the way she raised her children.
The Belvoir staff training teaches communication, Marcus said.
Amy Lieberman, a pianist and vocalist, came to Belvoir as a camper from ‘80 to ‘87 and as a counselor in ‘92, ‘93, ‘96 and ‘97. Coming back to Belvoir felt like coming home, she said, and always would.
It felt almost eerily familiar to gather in the mansion house, she said, especially on a rainy day. It felt like summer days when most camp activities got rained out and the campers packed into the mansion house, girls upon girls upon girls bunched together, looking out at the rain, wishing they could play tennis, but at least keeping together.
Lieberman said she enjoyed working as a counselor almost better than being a camper. She has kept in touch more with colleagues on the staff than with fellow campers. She taught private music lessons and also orchestra at Belvoir.
Marcus said the staff appreciated each camper and got excited by each one’s skills and enthusiasm. The campers all knew each other, too. When some campers performed, all the other campers went to watch and cheer for everyone in the cast. Alumnae from the camp often came back to perform for the campers as well.
Belvoir’s dance instructors often taught at other schools during the year, she added. They often talked about the politics in other places but said they did not run into that divisive feeling at Belvoir.
Lieberman loved working on the Belvoir staff. “You have so much freedom to be creative and teach whatever you want to, the way you want to,†she said. She taught at a university for years and found teaching there much more structured. The university had a certain lack of open-mindedness.
Goldberg said Belvoir keeps very quiet. The camp sits on Greenwood Street, just behind the Lenox downtown. Most of the town does not know it exists, Goldberg said. 18 buildings range over the site, most higher above the mansion house, near Kennedy Park, and clustered to preserve the estate’s original landscaping. The campers only leave the property on organized trips.
Camping continues to be a very successful business in the Berkshires, she said. Camps spend a lot locally on upkeep and supplies, and they brought the campers’ parents into Berkshire hotels and shops. Camps are quiet, natural, safe places and are well-supervised. “Camping’s good for kids,†she said. T continues to run in her family too: Marcus’ husband owns Camp Greylock, 150 boys on 300 acres of open space.
Belvoir plans to host a party Wednesday, June 11 with State Sen. Andrea Nuciforo, (D-Pitts.), in honor of their 50th year. A week of staff training with a social worker from Boston will follow. The 2003 camping season opens June 21, Marcus said, and Belvoir will have special performances for the campers this year to continue the celebration.
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Companion Corner Grey Boy at No Paws Left Behind
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — There's a cat No Paws Left Behind still waiting for his forever home.
iBerkshire's Companion Corner is a weekly series spotlighting an animal in our local shelters that is ready to find a home. He was previously highlighted but he now has new information.
Grey Boy is 10 years old and is a gray and white domestic shorthair and was previously highlighted on Companion Corner.
The shelter's Executive Director Noelle Howland introduced us to him and his long journey to be ready for adoption.
"He's been here a couple months. He was a transfer from a rescue in Bennington. They were out of space, so we had taken him in with a few other cats. So he's been here a couple months. He came in with what we believed was a respiratory infection," she said. "So it took us a little bit to get him ready, and then he also needed a dental. So he has nice, clean teeth. He had some teeth removed, and then he has to go back in and have one more dental. So he'll be all ready to go."
It was previously thought that he has feline herpes but he was recently diagnosed with a palette fracture because of how bad his dental disease was, which is what is causing his sneezing. He can now go home with cats, a cat-savvy dog and children.
"He has had two dentals since being with us. Due to the palate fracture he will be sneezy for the rest of his life, not contagious sneezing, but that doesn’t stop him from living a perfectly happy life. He should be on wet food with chunks due to this and since he has had many teeth removed," Howland said.
Grey Boy loves to play with toys and enjoy treats. He would also love to have a window to lounge or bird-watch in.
"He is not afraid of anything. He's very curious, so I'm sure he'd love if you have windows for him to look out of. He still plays, even though he's 10 it does not stop him. So any home would be a good fit for him."
Now that he is ready to be adopted, he is excited. When you walk into the room with him he will rub up against your leg introducing himself and asking to be pet.
"Usually, I would say, when you're walking, he'll bonk into you so he might catch you off guard a little bit. He constantly is rubbing against you," Howland said. "He really, I would say he's lazy when you want him to be, and he's active when you want him to be. He'll play with toys. He's usually lounging away. And then when he comes out he'll play. He loves it. So, very friendly, easy going cat."
He is now perfectly healthy with his dentals all done and veterinary care up to date and is ready to find his forever family.
"I would say the friendliest, easiest cat you could have. He's just, he's just gonna be a little sneezy sometimes, but that doesn't stop him from doing anything," she said.
Grey Boy's adoption fee is sponsored by Rooted in Balance Counseling LLC.
Cassidy Flynn scattered five hits in a complete-game effort in the circle as Lenox upset top-seeded Hoosac Valley, 3-2, in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament. click for more
Brayden Durant struck out seven and walked one in a complete-game effort on the mound Saturday to pitch the Drury baseball team to a 6-0 win over Keefe Tech in the quarter-finals of the Division 5 State Tournament at Joe Wolfe Field. click for more
