Art Monastery Youth Gathering

When I got back to Calvi on June 2, I knew that I was going to teach some dance for a youth workshop that would be running the next two weeks. I felt fine about that-youth are fine, dancing is fine, it was all fine. What I wasn’t prepared for was the giant blast of positivity and creativity I got slammed with over the next five days.

Charlie Murphy and Eric Mulholland run these camps all around the world, most recently in Uganda, as part of PYE Global, which Charlie himself founded. They basically create a temporary community of youth and adults, and in the space of a few days make a ton of connection and inspiration happen, using the arts.

Every time I felt cranky and didn’t want to participate in some circle activity, I found myself sucked in anyway and 5 minutes later would be much the richer for it. The kids were a variety of cool, funny, nerdy, sexy, brash, enthusiastic high schoolers, the adults mostly us at the ol’Art Monastery. I never would have thought the mix would work but it was fabulous.

The experience also definitely opened my eyes to ways that interacting with younger people is great for this project-the influx of energy and focus that it ended up bringing to us has been truly valuable. Oh, and Betsy and I got to perform the “Panic” song on the last night’s dinner time talent show.