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Home-Grown Dance Camp Rocks Lake Harriet Bandshell

At Lucy's Outdoor Dance Camp, students create their own performances.

On Friday, the Lake Harriet Bandshell was abuzz with costumed child performers dancing in a performance of their own creation.

But this was no group of youngsters playing dress-up on an empty stage. Coached by dancers and other professionals, these children had written their own play this summer that riffied off of a number of fairy tales and ancient Greek myths, as part of a small summer camp run by Southwest resident Lucy Rahn.

Lucy's Outdoor Dance Camp started out seven years ago when Rahn was asked to create a summer camp for  in Linden Hills as a part of their collection of summer programs and activities. 

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“I wanted to create something to share with kids that combined my passions for performing, dance, and respect for the natural environment in an environment I knew well: Lake Harriet,” explained Rahn.

While the original camp did not pan out, Rahn pursued the idea, founding the camp later that year. Rahn said her camp tries to expose students to a wide range of topics, from dance to yoga, swimming to theatre, and from nature exploration to learning the history of Lake Harriet.

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“The first day we meet at the Rose Garden and often times one of the first activities we do is like a scavenger hunt,” said Rahn. “I’ll give them photos that I’ve taken of different things, different flowers around the area.”

This is typically followed by a get-to-know-you dance warm up and name game, she said.

In past years, Rahn has had friends with various areas of expertise work with the kids.

“I had a friend who was really good at hip hop dance and had him come in and do a workshop, and a friend who was an ecology grad student and he came in and did the nature portion of it a couple days,” said Rahn. 

However, this year was the first where Rahn hired counselors to help her with the various programs.

“I just realized that if I wanted to keep doing the camp and expanding it, I needed to have extra help,” said Rahn.

She plans to transition to more of a managerial role, helping with the dance aspects of the camp, and developing the final performance. 

While each camp is different, Rahn’s underlying theme throughout every session is letting the kids have complete artistic and creative freedom.

“I let the kids be themselves and let them fully express themselves and their ideas and help them develop them,” said Rahn. “I think a lot of times they’re just told what to do, or they’re told to 'do this kind of in-the-box activities' that aren’t very challenging.”

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