The following was written by Bentonville Ozone Director Cass Trumbo.
Camp War Eagle pursues several goals for our students every
day – an appreciation for nature, for physical activity, for God and country.
Each of us who work here have our own interest, the aspects of life we see
emphasized most. I gravitate towards the arts, and like to bring games and
get-togethers back to creativity and imagination.
That’s why Great Pretenders is so important to me.
Great Pretenders is one of a few big, all-city,
all-previous-campers-please-come events that involve multiple buses, mountains
of pizza and special post-camp reunions between campers and staff. It’s a
performance driven night, involving eight lip-syncing acts that have been
pre-selected by their peers to perform on the main stage. At Great Pretenders,
these acts, populated with middle and high school students, attempt to
out-choreograph, out-costume, and generally out-imagine the others with the use
of jazz hands, fake singing and (this year) American flag waving.
Armed with a Hollywood-themed pre-party, we welcomed students
on a red carpet, complete with screaming fans, intrusive interviewers and adoring
paparazzi. After packing a triple-digit number of students into our offices,
passing out pizza and fruit and encouraging students to engage in our
peripherals (Get your nails painted! Get
a tattoo! Wear a paisley tie like a ninja headband!), we led our students
to a 300-seat chapel/performance hall. Between students, parents, and
volunteers, the space was filled nicely.
The eight acts, as well as a director act and a guest
performer, captivated for an hour and a half as performers exhibited the
creativity that they’d been practicing so hard to nail. Highlights included
Olivia Jordan’s “Check Yes Juliet,” an impressive flurry of precisely executed
footsteps and hand motions, which won the prize for “Best Choreography,” and Hailey
Grigg’s “Roar,” in which she dressed as a lion and used a jungle of streamers
she had mounted to milk crates. Hailey took home the “Best Costume” prize. The
cute level was through the roof.
Asked about the whole night, party to performances, Olivia
Jordan thought it was awesome. “It
felt great to hear people cheering my name,” she said. “Plus my grandmother and
I made that costume from scratch.”
The winning act combined thoroughly planned choreography
with matching outfits and a high level of energy from students who are not
often the center of attention. This is the beauty of Great Pretenders – as with
other aspects of Camp, Great Pretenders draws out latent or hidden talents from
students who may not get the opportunity to shine elsewhere. The arts can be
harnessed by anyone, given enough lack of inhibitions, and the winning group –
the Sparklers, of Bentonville Summit, a team of three students and two leaders
– leapt and laughed and flag-waved their way to a win, exhibiting absolutely
zero self-doubt in their own creativity and imaginations.
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