Dance, Music & Spice at Cavell

Immerse yourself in a week of inspiration and connection at Camp Cavell on the beautiful shores of Lake Huron! Dance, Music & Spice is an intentionally curated gathering designed for anyone who loves dancing, music, singing, art, and nature —all led by incredible instructors. Whether you come to the week to refine your skills, discover new ones, or simply soak in the magic of a shared passion, this experience offers something unforgettable for everyone.

From serene sunrise moments to late-night campfires, every day is designed to create joy, creativity, and connection. Expect to be inspired by the talent and kindness of both staff and fellow campers, who together create a welcoming space for all. 

This year, our theme is Parallel Play:  building joy and connections through shared discovery and community.  It will be a celebration of fun while learning in a shared space. Dive into English and contra dance programming, engage in heartfelt singing, and explore a variety of other music, crafts, and types of dancing. Our community-focused camp invites you to expand your horizons, deepen friendships, and create new ones in a setting that balances reflection and growth.

Extraordinary Staff, Fabulous Program

Our staff leads the way in creating the magic for the week. Lindsey Dono and Susan Kevra will delight you with the perfect mix of contras and English dances in both daytime and evening programming. Karen Axelrod, Ben Schreiber, Audrey Jaber, Sam Bartlett, Eric Schedler, Brian Lindsey, Alex Sturbaum, Charmaine Slaven, Milo Pierick, and John Bolduan will play everything from raucous reels to the most sublime English dance tunes throughout the week. In addition to dancing to their music, you’ll have opportunities to join our staff in making music with daily jams during our afternoon Happy Hour. Charmaine will lead an Appalachian clogging class, and Bryce and Dana Carlberg will teach rapper dance. Jamie Bunce will lead camp-wide singing and song-leading classes. And last but not least, Alex and Brian will lead an incredible contra musicians intensive course focusing on techniques both melody and backup players can use to support and enhance their ensembles. 

If you’d like to take a break from dance and music for a bit, there’s more! Charmaine Slavin will lead a daily morning stretch class and a class in crankie-making*.  You can also enjoy sitting under the perfectly shaded trees overlooking the beautiful lake, take a swim or go for a walk along the shores, finding the perfect rock to take home! Every day will also feature an assortment of camper-led sessions. We don’t know what these will be yet, because you haven’t told us! What would you like to add to the mix? We can’t wait to see you there.

~Audrey Jaber & Ben Schreiber, Program Directors

*Not sure what a crankie is?  Check out this one made by the CDSS staff a few years ago.

Arrival & Departure

Saturday Arrival Schedule:

Saturday Departure Schedule: 

Draft Daily Schedule

Early Mornings

Stretching – Charmaine Slavin

Join Charmaine for some simple stretches and yoga poses to balance out all of the dancing and music playing to help our bodies stay balanced and healthy through the week. You are encouraged to share favorite stretches and poses!

Period 1

ECD: Bon Voyage!: English Country Dance Trips on the Dance Floor – Susan Kevra with Karen Axelrod & Ben Schreiber

The English Dance repertoire is filled with dances referencing trips and travel, evoking far-off and familiar places. In this workshop, we’ll explore these dances, some familiar and others more exotic and consider how to make these trips up and down the set most enjoyable.

Appalachian Flatfooting – Charmaine Slavin

Learn the art of accompanying Southern fiddle music with your feet! We’ll start with the basic rhythm foundation steps, and learn accent steps as we go, with an emphasis on dancing with good musicianship. Flatfooting is an excellent way to improve your rhythm as a dancer and/or musician. You’ll be learning to let your entire body “hear” the music. It’s also an excellent work-out, as you’ll be so entrenched in the music, you won’t even realize you’re working up a sweat!

This class is physical, so be cautious if you suffer from back, hip, knee, ankle issues. Comfortable work-out clothing, a full water bottle, and low-heeled leather-soled shoes appropriate for dancing are recommended.

This class is suitable for all levels, we’ll start with basics and build up. We will also discuss some of the history & origins of this type of dance and the associated music.

Period 2

Flow and Flair Contras – Lindsey Dono with Eric Schedler & Sam Bartlett

Open to all, this morning contra session will explore musicality, connection, and floorcraft. We’ll mostly be dancing, with some interspersed styling tidbits (including the occasional flourish).

Camp Choir – Jamie Bunce

Description coming soon!

Contra Musicians Course – Alex Sturbaum & Brian Lindsay

By pre-registration only. Contra Dance Musicians Course

Period 3

ECD: It’s All About the Music – Susan Kevra with Karen Axelrod & Audrey Jaber

George Balanchine famously said, “Dance is music made visible.” The best English Country dances exploit this contention – with musical phrases that fit the choreography perfectly. At least once a day, we’ll get the musicians to weigh in on what they love about a tune and what they do to bolster the musical moments.

Crankie-making with Charmaine Slavin

Let’s make more crankies! And no, I promise you will be happy and not “cranky” at the outcome. Crankies are a story, song, or tune illustrated on a long scroll of paper of fabric and cranked on a spool so they roll across a viewing screen in time to the music or narration. We will demo a cranky that we’ve made, and then we will all work on making one together, with plans to perform it at some point during the week. Bring yourself and your creativity. We will bring the supplies!

Contra Musicians Course – Alex Sturbaum & Brian Lindsay

By pre-registration only. Contra Dance Musicians Course

Period 4

Adventurous Contras – Lindsey Dono with Eric Schedler & Sam Bartlett

Fasten your seatbelts, buckle your dance shoes, and join us for an exhilarating tour across the vast reaches of contra choreography, honing recovery techniques and teamwork skills along the way. All dancers welcome, safari hats optional.

Song Swap – Jamie Bunce

Description coming soon!

Rapper – Dana and Bryce Carlberg

Rapper sword dancing is an English tradition dating back to the late 1800’s when steel became flexible. 5-7 dancers are linked together and the dance is created by dancing the swords in interwoven patterns to jig stepping. (They are only called swords due to their length but are not swords in way you may be thinking.) Smooth soled shoes are recommended. Note: Daily attendance after the 2nd day of class is requested in order to maintain sets.

Period 5 and Beyond…

Music Jam

An all instruments-welcome!

Camper-led classes & activities

Camp fees cover all accommodation, meals from dinner on the arrival day to breakfast on the departure day, and all of the various dance, music, and song events in the program. 

This year, all of our weeks have sliding scale pricing for adults to help make camp financially accessible to more people. The fee you choose will not affect your chance of getting into camp.

How it works:

• The standard camper fee covers program staff pay and travel costs, facility fees, and all of the other costs associated with running this camp week.
• The higher price options allow you to add an additional amount to your registration fee to help make camp more accessible to more people. Thanks for supporting this community!
• If the standard camper fee doesn’t work for you, no worries! Feel free to choose one of the lower price options.
• If the lower price tiers still leave camp out of reach for you, we encourage you to apply for a scholarship and/or work exchange. See our Scholarships page for more details

You can find more information about the registration process here.