with a mission to teach “natural dance forms” and “artistic expression close to creatures and mountains and out of doors.” How progressive they must have seemed, dancing in fields of wildflowers at the PerryMansfield campus in Strawberry Park, where the non-profit organization still exists today, in long flowing skirts. They were so progressive, in fact, that the prestigious summer program is still operating under the same principles today. “It’s very interesting that they chose this location and that we’re still here,” says Executive Director Toni Quick. “What’s happened here for over 100 years makes Steamboat what it is today. It was a wild western town that has softened because of this arts camp. It exposed Steamboat to people from all over the world who came here to study dance and theatre.” “The Ladies” (as people within the organization still affectionately refer to them) tried starting their first camp in 1913 in Eldora, outside of Boulder, but the weather proved to be too cold. The Perry family was from Denver, and they were familiar with the Steamboat area because they held mining interests in the Oak Creek Mine. The women found the property in Strawberry Park and operated there from 1914 until 1965 when they transferred ownership and gifted the camp to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. “It was a women’s college that offered dance and theatre instruction, so there had been some faculty overlap,” Quick says. “If you were a dance major, you were required to do summer study here.”
42
|
S T E A M B OAT S I R .C O M