PUSH Pins Summer Camp + Teen Training Camp return in July

Plus: PUSH Summer Intensive again draws performers worldwide

Rochester, NY – Heather Stevenson has personal insight into how children can benefit from hands-on exploration of the arts. As a child, she struggled with learning disabilities and found her calmest focus in dance and theatre especially. After co-founding Rochester’s award-winning PUSH Physical Theatre in 2000 with her husband Darren Stevenson, Heather soon created the company’s children’s division called PUSH Pins.

“I love touring the world with PUSH but find that working with young people and seeing them respond so positively to what we do is my most rewarding job,” says the mother of two grown boys.

This July will mark the twelfth PUSH Pins Summer Camp that Brighton resident Heather has led. Last summer’s ran immediately after the world premiere at Blackfriars Theatre of her creation Busy Bodies: Compound Words in Motion – PUSH’s first show written specifically for children.

“One of my hopes with that show was that it would remind people that language can be difficult for children and that, as mentors, we need to have patience and understanding – and a little bit of humor,” she adds.

The nurturing environment that she and her team of professional teaching artist create is a highlight of both the PUSH Pins Summer Camp (for kids entering Kindergarten through Grade 9) and her Teen Training Camp (for Grades 10 and up).

  • PUSH Pins Summer Camp will run Monday, July 9 – Friday, July 13 at First Presbyterian Church (25 Church St.) in Pittsford (14534). This year’s theme is “Four Seasons in Five Days,” and campers will focus on each of the seasons through music, movement, emotion, and art. They’ll explore new forms of expression, including physical theatre, mime, modern dance, taekwondo, Parkour, balloon sculpting, drumming, juggling, and visual art. Teaching artists include PUSH Physical Theatre performers as well as guest artists. Children will enjoy daily healthy snacks, a closing Pizza Party, and a Camp Showcase & Dessert Reception for friends and families. Cost is $250 ($225 if registered by April 30th), $150 for siblings. Before- and after-care is available.
  • Teen Training Camp runs the same week and at same location as the youth camp. Teen campers will act as junior counselors under the guidance of staff, with additional physical training after campers are dismissed each day. Camp includes a pre-camp training day on Saturday, June 30th, as well as a post-camp review with Heather, volunteer service-hours certificate, and future employment/volunteer references. Cost is $250 ($225 if registered by April 30th).

To find out more and/or register for either program, call 585-278-0123, email pushpins@pushtheatre.org or visit pushpinsforkids.org.

Prior to PUSH Pins’ summer programs for kids, Darren Stevenson will lead PUSH’s annual, two-week Summer Intensive for performers ages 18 and over on June 17 – 30 at the company’s South Wedge rehearsal studio. Each year, the Intensive draws students from all over the world, including Venezuela, Hong Kong, Jordan, the Dominican Republic, Greece, and South Africa. For more information and/or registration, visit PUSH Summer Intensive.

PUSH Physical Theatre was founded in Rochester, NY in 2000 by husband-and-wife team, Darren and Heather Stevenson, with a mission to push the boundaries of conventional theatre. For 18 years, this talented group of performers has been inspiring awe and igniting emotion with physical illusions and gravity-defying, dance-infused, acrobatic high jinx. The current company also features veteran PUSHer Jonathan Lowery, former Cirque du Soleil performer Avi Pryntz-Nadworny, and Fulbright scholar and dancer Katherine Marino. In addition to a busy touring schedule that continues to take them all over the U.S. and the world, these masters of physical storytelling were finalists on truTV’s Fake Off in 2014 (Season One), during which judge/Glee star Harry Shum, Jr. said: “You guys are superhuman!” They are also very involved in arts-in-education programs – often working with at-risk children – and run their own PUSH Pins Summer Camp, Teen Training, and Summer Intensive for adult students from all over the world. Full-length works include PUSH’s Jekyll & Hyde, Dracula, Arc of Ages, as well as 2013’s choreography for composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated opera, Comala. In 2016, Zohn-Muldoon, fellow Eastman School of Music faculty and composer Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, PUSH, and many other Mexican and U.S. artists collaborated on a multi-media opera called Don’t Blame Anyone (No Se Culpe), for which they received the Lillian Fairchild Memorial Award from the University of Rochester. Many shorter works include “Red Ball,” a study of interplay between the real and virtual worlds using iPad technology, created in collaboration with RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Darren and Heather are recipients of both the Anton Germano Dance Award and the Performing Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, and have spoken about their unique artistic process at TEDx Rochester. More information is available at pushtheatre.org.

Media please note: High-resolution photos, interviews and photo/footage opportunities are available.

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