At the 4th to 6th of July, children dance camp “Open Up KIDS 2016” took place. The program included 8 different coaches and teachers, classes 2 to 3 times a day: activities, sport, creative workshops, teamwork, master classes, dance classes, orienteering and leisure.

The camp was created to give the children more motivation to work with themselves, to develop, to set new goals and to reach them.

This year, we started to design the camp in such a way, that parents could take part in it as well. Parents could not only watch their children during the classes, but participate themselves in classes especially designed for parents (health gymnastics, functional training, contemporary dance, hip hop, zumba, aerobics, orienteering, sport etc.). We can be proud, that in the dance camp, the teachers are not only dancers, but teachers as well with the respective education, which lets the teacher to better understand the child and to find the most suitable approach to it.

Parents have liked the camp so much, that we have the first applicants for the “Open Up KIDS 2017” camp already, that will take place at the 26th to 30th of June or at the 17th to 21st of July. (The exact week is still to be decided about, surveying the parents, feel free to express your opinion).
In the small camp “Open Up KIDS 2016”, there were 90 participants all in all. It was crowded and we had very many applicants. No matter how much we would have liked to accommodate all of them, there were several children and parents whom we had to reject because we were crowded already.

The children were 6 to 12 years of age. Classes were held in 3 age groups: 6 to 9 years, 10 to 12 years, parents. Each group had a different teacher, style, and dance complexity. All participants were split into 7 groups. Each of the groups had to prepare a dance performance at the camp closing. In the performance, small children, bigger children, and parents took part. It was a great joy to see, that dance can connect very different ages. It was an exciting experience not only for the children and their parents, but for the teachers as well.

Feedback from the Barkāni family: Greetings and big thanks from all 4 Barkānīši. Yesterday, when we entered Riga, we felt the difference between the atmosphere in the camp un in the city very sharply. This morning, when our kids woke up, the first thing they said was: “We want to go back to the camp”. My husband and I had similar feelings. So, today, we booked 4 places in the next year’s camp already. Sending you all strength and inspiration. P.S. This morning, all 4 of us (my husband and I to our jobs, our kids to the dentist) we wore our Dance Beat bracelets 🙂 Happy and proud to belong to such a community!

Getting inspired and strengthened, we are starting with the planning of next year’s camp already. 🙂

Big thanks to our supporters – foundation “Latvia Charity Bank”, “Pure Chololate”, “Ozoliņa konditoreja”, “Puratos”, meat processing company “Nākotne”, “Firma L4”, “Maxima”, “Venden”, “Detars”, “Intrac Latvia”, and “Flora maiznīca”.

Dance Beat
Team