Our Response to COVID-19

A Note from Our Team

Amidst the uncertainty of this pandemic, we have quickly refocused our priorities to provide online classes, comprehensive online school curricula, and virtual summer programs for all. Our small team has been volunteering around the clock to see that this almost 50-year-old organization stays afloat in the coming weeks and months. Today, when you make a contribution to The Vanaver Caravan, you bring the joys of dance and connection directly into the homes of people who need it right now. If it is within your means to do so, please make a donation: a little goes a long way and will be deeply felt.

Call for Submissions!

Take a beat from the news and visit Our ‘Caravan Community Page

Good News Stream

Call for Submissions

​As we enter into more serious social distancing in the coming weeks/months, I have decided to start The ‘Caravan Community Good News Stream which revolves around the Vana-mission of using arts to recognize our shared humanity. 

Fun Fact! In addition to dancing w the 'Caravan, the ten Broeke kids (​who you may know as ​Moo, Juliet, Neil, Oliver) were all homeschooled with Ulster Home Educators​ right in New Paltz​. My mom, Lexi, published an incredible in-print homeschool newsletter for over a decade. My favorite activity as a kid (aside from dancin') was getting to submit my own artwork, advice, recipes, and writing to a "Real Newsletter"! It was a genius idea, conceived by parents who chose to educate their kids at home. ​ ​

Now, you may not have chosen to educate your kids at home, but here we are today​. And, ​I don't know about you, but I could use some good news! So I'm making it.​ Necessity is the mother of all invention, right?​ ​ ​You and your children are all such incredible humans. With our combined talents, creativity, wisdom, humor, stories, and knowledge, I bet we could create an endless stream of good feelings and helpful resources to share w/ our extended communities.​ 

So, let's begin!​

​​There is NO age limit to submissions, and no high brow criteria for a submission. If you submit it and it feels right, I'll try my best to get it posted and published here.

I'm Looking for Submissions such as​ (but not limited to)​:

​​FUNNIES​ & BRAIN GAMES​: 

• funny photos, videos, YouTube clips

• jokes​ & ​riddles​, puzzles, crosswords

• DIY Games​

• ​comic strips (original content preferred)

• childhood videos of you dancing/singing (Example )

  ​​ARTWORK

• paintings

• doodles

• collages

• photography

• masterpieces

  ​​POETRY & PROSE

• short stories, prose, poems! -- what s of wisdom do you have for this world?

• ​good news op eds and journalistic articles 

  ​​TUTORIALS

• dance / music tutorials 

• recorded yoga/meditations

• playlists and song suggestions

• songs, chords, lyrics 

  EDUCATION, ENTERTAINMENT, INSPIRATION:

• ​links to ​dance/song/art resources (such as books, documentaries, movies, articles) 

• financial resources/links for artists, nonprofits, freelancers, students, etc. 

• inspiring, educational, and/or hilarious youtube videos

• inspirational quotes  
  

  TIPS & ADVICE: 

• household cleaning tips

• home remedies​ (I know you have them) ​

• thoughts/tips/activities on how to stay sane at home  

• easy comfort meals to cook w/ limited ingredients

ie - submit anything you feel would be helpful, bring a smile, a sense of physical or emotional well-being, or relief to anyone in this world. ​

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To Submit: send submissions directly to me: miranda.tenbroeke@gmail.com. You can also share/tag/DM videos, pics, posts etc to @VanaverCaravan on IG | FB 

I will be posting what I receive right here and as a social media series starting ASAP. 

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Sending big love to all of you! Let's stay creative and keep dancing, 

Miranda (Moo) 

Wearer of Many Hats

At The Vanaver Caravan

Miranda.tenbroeke@gmail.com 

vanavercaravan.org

Fall Classes & Performances

And A Time for Every Season

As summer comes to a gentle end, The Vanaver Caravan excitedly awaits our first sign of autumn: FallDance classes begin next week! Our young dancers, Caravan Kids, Youth Co, and Company begin rehearsing and preparing for a series of performances in October, November, and our Holiday Show in December. We have new faculty members and some new changes to our FallDance classes.

Our 2019 FallDance faculty are Livia Vanaver, Miranda ten Broeke, and our newest faculty member, Michelledana Shafran, founder/creator of YogAbundance! We are very excited to bring Michelledana on board. (Juliet ten Broeke will pop in for guest-teaching appearances as she finishes up her final semester at SUNY New Paltz. Go, Juliet!)

We are opening our Monday classes to a wider age-range. Monday percussive class now goes from 10-Adult and will focus on Appalachian Clogging and a medley of powerful rhythmic world dances. Adults over 18 may drop in to both our Percussive and Modern Dance classes.

You can now find all sorts of helpful info on our recently updated FallDance registration page.

See Schedule below for classes. We look forward to dancing with you!

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Upcoming Performances & Events

~ Happy Birthday, Bill! Happy Labor Day, laborers! ~

~ Happy Fall to everyone! ~

Past event: July 3-8: Rudolstadt, GERMANY

Nathan and Evita + Isa and Talli, performing “Peace Pin Boogie” at Rudolstadt in 2007

From July 3rd-8th, the Company will be on tour in Germany, performing at Germany’s premier folk festival, Rudolstadt.

The Vanaver Caravan performed at Rudolstadt in 1996 and 2007. We can’t wait to go back!

SCHEDULE.

If you happen to be in Germany, come find us (or plan a fun stop in Germany for your summer vacation).

Past Event: July 7-12: Common Ground on the Hill

Finding Common Ground—on the Hill

The Vanaver Caravan has been teaching workshops at Common Ground since it’s inception 25 years ago! Every year, Livia, Bill and co. pack up the Vana-Van and head down to Westminster Maryland to teach and learn, dance and sing, talk and listen, write, craft and laugh with a huge pool of diverse and talented artists and thinkers. Come join this incredible community for three individual weeks of in-depth courses in art, dance, a variety of musical instruments, film, writing, songwriting, spoken word and literary arts, along with a broad range of discussion courses. Evening art lectures, concerts, dances and jams round out this extraordinary experience! College credit available.

SIGN UP FOR TRADITIONS WEEKS NOW:

Week 1: June 23 - June 28, 2019
Week 2: June 30 - July 5, 2019
​Week 3: July 7 - 12, 2019 Livia and Bill will be teaching during week 3.

C.G.O.T.H. VISION

“What we believe … is that a healthy society is one that is highly involved in the arts.” —Walt Michael, founder and executive director of Common Ground on the Hill

Common Ground on the Hill offers three consecutive but separate weeks of workshops in music and visual arts, concerts, dances, dramatic performances, lectures, art shows and more.  These workshops and other events feature professional musicians, artists, dancers, actors, writers and thinkers from a wide variety of disciplines who hail from all over the United States and beyond, and who come to Common Ground on the Hill as instructors to teach and perform.  Common Ground on the Hill also enrolls a body of students who come to participate in workshops, attend concerts, play music, dance, paint, weave, make pottery, write, engage in dialog, learn, share, and much, much more. 

Students who enroll at Common Ground on the Hill come from the general public, from all walks of life, from varied backgrounds and places, varied interests and vocations, and with widely varying degrees of artistic inclination and training.  At Common Ground on the Hill, students will find themselves in the midst of a unique community of their fellow students and their instructors, all from diverse places and backgrounds.  In the midst of this diversity, it is not uncommon to find situations such as a professional doctor and a migrant farm worker together in a “Brazilian Guitar” workshop, a West Virginian and a West African drummer working out rhythm in “African Dance,” or a teenager and a septuagenarian weaving together in “Cherokee Basketry.”

Explore the website to learn more about Common Ground on the Hill’s Annual Traditions Weeks Workshops and Special Events.  You can view schedules of Traditions Weeks workshops and events, read course descriptions for each of the available workshops, read biographical information on each of the instructors and find their workshops, and register as a student at Common Ground on the Hill online!  Don’t forget that Common Ground on the Hill encourages family attendance.  Read about World Village to learn more about the extensive children’s programming during Traditions Weeks.