Nebraska Dance Camp

Welcome to the Nebraska Summer Dance Camp!

The Nebraska Summer Dance Camp invites you to be part of our 25th anniversary year! Join us for seven exciting days of intensive dance – plus outdoor recreation at the Nebraska National Forest – with top Midwest teachers plus our featured guest instructors, Sandra Organ Solis, Dalienne Majors, and Roxanne Nielsen – plus, back from New Zealand as our special 25th Anniversary guest teacher, Nebraska Dance Camp founder Valerie Roche!

This year’s camp dates are:

June 24 – 30, 2012
Nebraska State 4-H Camp View Map
Halsey, Nebraska

How to register:

Right-click here to download a printable copy of the 2012 camp brochure and registration form. Complete the registration form (including your dance teacher’s recommendation) and send it in with your $200 deposit. We recommend registering early to assure your place!

If you have questions or need more information, contact the Omaha Academy of Ballet by emailing us at academy@oabdance.org or calling us and leaving a message at (402) 346-0469. We look forward to seeing you at camp!

About the camp: Exciting, intensive, affordable summer dance!

This fast-paced program will provide a rewarding challenge for dancers at moderate to advanced levels Enrollment is limited to 70; students will be grouped by ability to assure individual attention. Minimum requirements: age 10 and two years of ballet. Students will take three to four classes daily.

In order to achieve balanced enrollment, we limit the number of students in each age bracket – so to avoid disappointment, please send in your application early. When an age bracket is filled, a waiting list system will apply. Waiting-list applicants will be informed.

All students will have one classical ballet class each day, plus 2–3 other classes providing a balanced program for each level:

Pointe – Works on developing the strength and technique needed to allow the female dancer to dance on pointe. (For advanced students only.)

Modern dance – Includes exposure to various techniques, repertory, and specific strength, balance and flexibility training to assist in every form of dance.

Jazz/theater dance – Full warmup, center work, progressions across the floor, and dance combinations.

Modern camp facilities and exciting activities amid spectacular scenery at the Nebraska State 4-H Camp

The State 4-H Camp is located on the edge of the nation’s largest man-planted forest, near Halsey. The camp location combines the best of a forest setting with the great Nebraska Sandhills. Go ‘tubing’ down the Middle Loup River, try your skill on the Challenge Course, walk the forest trails and enjoy the range of animal and bird life on view.

A quality program, affordably priced

The total cost for the summer dance camp is only $430, including tuition, room & board, all activities, and camp T-shirt. Please enclose a check with your registration form, payable to “Summer Seminar.” Register today to assure your place. Registrations will be due June 11.

2012 Camp Faculty

Sandra Organ Solis was taught the Royal Academy of Dancing syllabus by Valerie Roche in Omaha, Nebraska, where she graduated from Duchesne Academy, and entered Houston Ballet Academy on scholarship. After 15 seasons under Ben Stevenson as Houston Ballet’s first Black ballerina, (twelve as a soloist), she founded Sandra Organ Dance Company (SODC), now EARTHEN VESSELS. Her international career with the Houston Ballet encompassed a diverse range of roles in the classical and contemporary realm, from choreographers George Balanchine, and Sir Kenneth MacMillian to Christopher Bruce and Paul Taylor. She has choreographed nearly 90 ballets in the last 13 years and has served as Trustee for Dance/USA.

Dalienne Majors is a native of Omaha. She began dance lessons at the age of four with Betty Jean Assmann and continued her professional dance training with Valerie Roche at the Omaha Academy of Ballet, the Juilliard School in New York City and the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Dalienne currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY where she is Chair of the K-12 dance program at the Berkeley Carroll School.

Roxanne Nielsen served as choreographer and director of education and outreach for the Omaha Community Playhouse and currently is a free-lance choreographer and dance instructor. Roxanne has received numerous awards for choreography and performance and has worked at many local theaters and schools. She has many years of teaching experience and has taught for the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University, Omaha Dance Teachers Association, The Moving Company, and the Omaha Dance Project.

Valerie Roche, ARAD, ATC registered teacher, is a life member of the Royal Academy of Dance, and holds the Associate Diploma of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.

She spent 36 years as head of the dance program in Creighton University’s department of fine and performing arts. During that time she trained many students who were successful in the major examinations of the RAD and the ISTD. She concurrently served as Director of the Omaha Academy of Ballet, which served students age 5 to adults, involved in RAD and ISTD examinations.

She formed A Company of Dancers, which presented selected dancers from Creighton University and the community in local productions and toured in Nebraska and Iowa. Repertoire included her own choreography, works by local and guest choreographers, and licensed works from The Dance Notation Bureau including those of Anthony Tudor, Doris Humphrey and other established artists.

Before coming to the US, Valerie performed in pantomime in Birmingham, England, from the age of 12 years and later became a member of the Lehmiski Ladies, performing everything from tap to classical ballet in musicals, opera and variety shows.

She emigrated to New Zealand following her retirement from Creighton in 2002, and has been teaching for the Peta Spooner School of Dance (Wakatu Dance Theatre) since 2004.

Plus top Midwest teachers – Barbara Hartmann, Karen Jamieson, Lynne Nevin, and Patti Zukaitis.