Photos: The Sundance mirror ball (2014); Sundance Auctioneer Lorne Crawford, with assistance from Sandra Skidmore and Glen Pruitt, auctions a quilt made by Steven Haber from past Sundance t-shirts.
Sundance Reflections (The Love Dream)
The first Sundance happened in the rain. Well, not literally in the rain, but because of the rain the planned outdoor party was moved indoors. That occurrence was not altogether unplanned; fortunately, the invitation had read “in case of unkind weather please join us at the Strand.
Remember the Strand? It was only open for seven years in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, but it was a little piece of dance heaven—and occupied the entire width of the block between Rehoboth Avenue and Baltimore Avenue (where Brouseabout Books and A(muse) are located today). For the first Sundance in 1988, it was brand new, and had only been open for a few short weeks.
That first Sundance was 26 years ago; this Labor Day weekend, we will dance the Sundance for the 27th time. For a great many of those years, I’ve written about Sundance in the pages of this magazine. I’ve covered its history on multiple occasions. I’ve waxed-poetic about the themes, and shed a few tears over the Sundance Hosts and volunteers we’ve lost to AIDS. I’ve written about the auction; I’ve written about the dance. I’ve quoted Sundance Team Captains, volunteers, Hosts and Sponsors. I’ve even been reduced to quoting myself from all the previous articles I’d written about Sundance.
Fortunately, I have had a bit more help these last few years, and Nancy Sakaduski, one of our CAMP Rehoboth volunteers has taken over the press releases and general information about Sundance. (For her latest, check out Sundance Update in this issue. By the way, Nancy’s book, You Know You’re in Rehoboth When, is available at both Proud and Browseabout Books.)
So, does this mean that I’ve said all that needs to be said about Sundance? No, of course not! It’s not possible to produce an event like Sundance 27 times without being changed by it. It has become as familiar a part of our lives as Christmas. I suspect that after all this time, even if we were to give it up and move far away, Steve and I would still celebrate Sundance in our own way every Labor Day weekend. All it would take is a little spandex, a mirror ball, a few lights, and a recording from a previous Sundance!
Except that’s not all it would take, is it? At the very heart of Sundance are the people of Sundance—the friendships of Sundance, the families of Sundance—who come together every year to celebrate the end of another summer season with people they love.
This year’s Sundance theme The Love Dream—Return to Xanadu is a marriage of Olivia Newton-John’s “Xanadu” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous line “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree.” In the dance mixes of “Xanadu”, the phrase “the love dream” repeats again and again. I think it captures the essence of what Sundance has always been about.
My sister, Mary Beth Ramsey, the very talented artist and designer, has worked on Sundance from the beginning, and she and her husband Bob were part of the original host list for the first Sundance back in 1988. In recent brainstorming conversations with her about how to interpret this year’s theme in graphics and décor, the word utopia kept coming up. At its heart, The Love Dream is about creating a better world for all of us—much like the mission of CAMP Rehoboth.
We have made great progress in LGBT matters in recent years, but we have also emboldened our enemies to speak up against us. The internet makes unity possible; it also puts words of hate right into our laps. The more visible we are, the more visible are those who are against us. I am an eternal optimist about love, and I believe that love will win out eventually. In the meantime, there is still a whole lot of healing that needs to take place within us and throughout the world.
Will dancing at Sundance make The Love Dream more real? I don’t know, I guess it’s up to each one of us. I do know that every time we come together as a community, we have the capacity to create more love in the world.
So let’s do it.
I mentioned the people of Sundance earlier, and they, we, all of us, remain the heart and soul of Sundance. As this issue of Letters hits the streets, we still have another week of signing up Sponsors, Supporters, and Hosts for this year’s Sundance. Producing a major event like this is expensive, and it couldn’t happen without the tremendous financial support we receive from the people of this community. Please consider signing up at one of the many levels available. All sponsorship levels and tickets and ticket packages are available on the CAMP Rehoboth website at camprehoboth.com, or by calling the CAMP Rehoboth office at 302-227-5620. To be included in the printed materials for Sundance 2014, we need to know by July 20.
Sadly, one of the people of Sundance passed away recently. We have had several Sundance auctioneers over the years; Ben Killebrew was the second. He began his stint as auctioneer back when Sundance was still located at the Strand, and he moved on with us to the Convention Center in the early ‘90s. He was always a gentleman and we loved working with him. He will be missed.
Please join us on Labor Day weekend for Sundance 2014, Rainbow XXVII: The Love Dream—Return to Xanadu.
See you on the dance floor.
Murray Archibald, CAMP Co-founder and President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in Rehoboth Beach.