Girl Empowerment Camps – The ADTC Dance Camp Mission

Girls: We have to do what we love. The world needs strong & inspired girls like us doing more of what we love.

And we’ve got a lot we’re up against – just tune into the latest “reality” show, take a stroll down the aisles at a girls’ clothing store, or pick up any teen magazine and you’ll see that the messages us girls get about our bodies, sexuality, and about one another are at best harmful and degrading.

That’s why ADTC dance camps are actually “girl empowerment camps”

And that’s why we share one simple, unifying mission: to empower girls to move to love.

So what exactly does it mean to “move to love”?

MOVE – to pass from one place or position to another.

LOVE – to access the part of our mind that is connected to Spirit; the source of peace, joy, happiness and a whole bunch of other “positive” emotions.

So “move to love” means to move to a new place (or state of mind) – the state of mind connected to your Spirit (peace, joy, happiness…all that positive stuff).

And in order to move to love, we must move away from where we currently are that is not love (this place is usually called fear). Fear will try to keep you from moving to love at all costs. Fear will even use your own ego to totally confuse you and make you think that it is safer not to move to love (or that you aren’t capable of it). Luckily love isn’t a far off “destination” – it is a practice that you can choose right now. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “there is no way to love. Love IS the way.”

Our Girl Empowerment Camps offer a tight-knit community where we can feel safe to practice love. At ADTC,we aren’t bombarded by confusing, fear-based messages that tell us to be skinnier, wear makeup, and dress for boys. This space allows girls the chance reconnect with the authentic “selves” so many of us struggle to hold on to during the school year.

ADTC Girl Empowerment Camps & the Miracle of Summer

At ADTC, we say that summer is a time of miracles. We define “miracle” as a shift in perception from fear to love. A miracle can come when you’re one with a movement, the music or your new friends. But no matter if it comes in a smile, a performance or a kayak, when you feel it, you just know. We think girls need more love – more miracles.

So, we’re creating girl empowerment camps – overnight dance camps with a bigger mission:

To inspire (and be inspired)
To create community by connecting like-minded girls/women
To educate and empower girls to choose love (over fear) in their lives)
To create meaningful experiences/moments
To get girls moving (physically, but most importantly towards their passion/dream/purpose)

The “Move To Love” mission grows with every girl who joins our girl empowerment camps. And with all of us working towards this greater mission, together we’re nudging our families, schools, local communities, and the world toward love, peace, understanding, and happiness, too.

Our Manifesto – ADTC Girl Empowerment Camps

American Dance Training Camps is a company inspired by and created for strong girls. Doing what we love enables us to embody, model & teach our sixteen character values, or “movement manifesto.”

The ADTC Movement Manifesto is one way our dance camps become girl empowerment camps. It is an ever-evolving collection of bold thoughts that allow for some real conversations to take place at camp.

ADTC Girl Empowerment Camps - Movement Manifesto

ADTC Character Value Affirmations

As young girls we have a natural sense of ease about us. We feel free to be who we are without apologies. We radiate joy.

As we grow, our culture can alter our perception of ourselves and dim our inner light. A major contributor to this change is the thoughtless or unconscious words and messages around us.

As adults, many of our limiting thought patterns can be attributed to unconsciously adopting negative societal beliefs at certain pivotal moments during childhood.

Much of the content on TV and the Internet are negative self-messages aimed at convincing us to consume more, compete with our friends, doubt our bodies and find happiness in things rather than in ourselves. When fed this way, thoughts grow like weeds and need an organic herbicide (think dance, friends and fun) for healing.

Positive affirmations can do a lot to assist us in developing healthy self-esteem. Using our sixteen character values (the four “A’s”; the four “D’s”; the four “T’s”; and the four “C’s”), we’ve developed the “I statement” affirmations below.Our hope is that these affirmations help provide an antidote for media messages, and a reprogramming of the mind and heart, both at camp and beyond. Used repetitively, we can learn to call on these messages like faithful friends in times of stress.

Girl Empowerment Camps - Our Character Values

The Four A’s

Attention. We believe in practicing & teaching the self-regulation of attention so that it is maintained on immediate experience: observing, listening, and noticing all the feelings at play in ourselves & in others.

Acceptance. We believe in practicing & teaching acceptance of ourselves and of others just as we are, with curiosity, openness, appreciation and allowing.

Appreciation. We believe in practicing & teaching appreciation at the very core of our being for everything we observe and experience: including all of our gifts, our limits, our longings, and our obstacles.

Allowing. We believe in practicing & teaching an allowing of emotions to “just be” as they are, with all their ecstasy and ache, without trying to take control, so they have the opportunity to pass on by.

The Four D’s

Desire. We believe in practicing & teaching how to relate wisely to desire because while desire is intrinsic to life, it can contract into craving that traps us in suffering.

Decision. We believe in practicing & teaching wise decision-making by pausing to reflect on a situation and our experience before reacting habitually so we can choose the best response for ourselves and others.

Discipline. We believe in practicing & teaching the importance of discipline to staying on a path with purpose and living our values every day.

Dedication. We believe in practicing and teaching dedication to our path & to our values, as well as dedication to actions of body, speech, and mind that aid our own and others’ well-being.

The Four T’s

Truth. We believe in practicing & teaching honesty as the best policy and understanding as the best goal. Using “non violent communication” as our method, we speak our truth with clarity and listen to another’s truth with empathy.

Trust. We believe in practicing & teaching a trust in our own unique goodness & capability as well as a trust in the unique goodness & capability of the other.

Teamwork. We believe in practicing & teaching teamwork & cooperation. Always.

Teach. We believe in practicing and teaching that the best way to get what you want is to be the change you seek and then model it for others. Every one of us is a teacher and we need to take this role very seriously!

The Four C’s

Community. We believe in practicing & teaching the art of living with an authentic sense of belonging – that is what a strong community is all about, a place where each and every one of us is important and belongs!

Courage. We believe in practicing & teaching courage: the ability to confront fears, uncertainty or intimidation & to act right in the face of popular opposition or discouragement.

Creativity. We believe in practicing & teaching creativity both inside and outside the dance studio.

Compassion. We believe in practicing & teaching compassion as a virtue – one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy (for the suffering of others) are regarded as part of love itself.

Why ADTC?

The best way to understand the ADTC difference is to attend a session with us, but here are some key elements that we believe contribute to making American Dance Training Camps truly unique, and our summer camp experience one you’ll remember for a lifetime.

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ADTC Basics

ADTC is the ULTIMATE overnight dance camp for girls ages 8 – 17. Our camps are age-appropriate, great for groups, and dancers of all levels & disciplines are welcome! ADTC Basics include info about a typical day, meals, team events, the canteen, etc.

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Solo Campers

Naturally, our dance camps attract girls from all over the world who love dance. Like you, they’re seeking out new experiences and lifelong connections with new friends and new places. At ADTC we say, “you can come solo, but you’ll never be alone.”

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