September Birthday Musings
And just like that, September is upon us.
September 1 has always felt like the beginning of a new year at The Vanaver Caravan. SummerDance winds down, the studios begin to fill again, musicians tune their instruments, teachers make their plans, and another season gathers itself around us.
It is also Bill Vanaver’s birthday.
I had never really stopped to think about the poetry of those two things falling together, but there it is. Bill understood the rhythm of the year, the value of returning, beginning again, and following the work wherever it led. We miss him every day, but I still see him everywhere: in the giddy twinkle that overtakes our dancers and musicians when something clicks in rehearsal, in the safe and sweet mischief our young dancers create during the summer, and in our ongoing conversations about the responsibilities and possibilities of being artists in this world.
His presence is woven into the cadence of the Caravan year. And so, as we begin again, we are carrying Bill with us into a season full of music, movement, questions, gatherings, and the usual amount of Caravan commotion.
Looking Back at 2026 (So Far)
This year has already been a rather remarkable one.
We have continued developing America in Motion, our newest original production exploring labor, immigration, industry, identity, workers’ rights, land, and belonging. The work has grown through research, rehearsal, collaboration, and performance, each new audience helping us understand what the piece is becoming. This summer, we brought America in Motion on the road, sharing it with communities across New York and continuing to build toward its next life.
Our Arts Education programs have continued bringing dance and music into schools throughout the region. In classrooms, gymnasiums, cafeterias, auditoriums, and any other space that can hold a circle of moving children, students have been learning through rhythm, movement, history, storytelling, and play. These programs remain at the heart of what we do: using the arts to help young people encounter cultures, one another, and their own creativity with curiosity and respect.
SummerDance returned to Rosendale for Once Upon a Theatre, filling the weeks with dancing, music-making, storytelling, costume rummaging, and the particular variety of joyful chaos that occurs when young artists are given the space to create something together. We watched new friendships form, confidence grow, and ideas that began as tiny sparks become a full performance onstage.
Behind the scenes, The Vanaver Caravan has also been doing the less visible work of growing thoughtfully: strengthening our programs, supporting our artists and teachers, building new partnerships, asking difficult questions, and imagining what the next fifty years might hold. The work is not always tidy (growth rarely is), but it is alive with possibility.
Turning Toward Fall
Now we turn our eyes, and point our toes, toward fall.
FallDance classes begin the week of September 14, welcoming dancers ages 4–18 back into the studio. From Caravan Minis through CaravanKids, Junior Youth Company, and Youth Company, the coming months will hold serious dancing, considerable silliness, new friendships, familiar traditions, and the slow magic of building something together week by week.
We are also beginning preparations for Into the Light, which will bring our dancers and musicians to The Egg in Albany this December. This beloved winter production gathers music and dance from around the world into a celebration of the season, our shared humanity, and the many ways communities come together during the coldest part of the year. There is a great deal of dancing, rehearsing, organizing, and costume-wrangling between here and there, but Into the Light is already beginning to twinkle on the horizon.
Meanwhile, America in Motion will continue to evolve as we deepen the work, welcome new collaborators, and prepare for future performances. We are also looking ahead to our next international cultural exchange with India and the many adventures that 2027 will bring.
But first, September.
There is something wonderfully simple about following the rhythm of the year. We gather, we make, we dance, we rest, and then we begin again. The work changes. The people around the circle change. The questions grow and deepen. But the music continues, and we find our way back into the dance together.
Happy birthday, Bill. And happy new year, Caravan.
