I CLOSE-UP I Artistic Paradise Interlochen offers future virtuosos new- avenues of expression SUSAN WEINGARDEN Special to The Jewish News I 'm learning a lot, but everything here is very fast. You do a dance step once and you are expected to pick it up." That is 13-year-old Debby Rosenberg's assessment of her first summer at Interlochen National Music Camp, which offers students concentrated programs in music, drama, visual arts and dance. Located 15 miles southwest of Traverse City, the 1,200-acre wooded campus is home for eight weeks to 1,362 students from 27 foreign coun- tries and all 50 states. Rosenberg, from Bloomfield Hills, is one of more than 200 Jewish students attending Interlochen this summer, including four from Israel and approximately 30 from the Detroit area. "Interlochen offers an excellent program for anyone interested in the Anna Rabinowitz practices the saxophone. 24 iiiDAYdlikei,14 1.1987_1:o i arts," said Anna Rabinowitz, 15, of Bloomfield Hills. "My major here is art. There is a wide variety of classes. I love the teachers and the kids." In addition to ceramics, Rabinowitz is taking beginning sax- ophone, music theory and costume design and execution. "I'm learning to construct from a pattern and sew manually. High school is a good time to experiment so you will know what you want to do when you get older." A student at Detroit Country Day, Rabinowitz said she wanted to meet people who are interested in the same things she is. "I love the aura and the feeling of Interlochen. Everyone has something about -them that makes them unique and special." While daytime is allotted to classes and practice, evenings offer a plethora of cultural experience. "In the evening I can work in the visual arts room, attend concerts, art lec- tures and films," Rabinowitz said. "Or I can socialize or sleep." Rabinowitz conforms to the camp rules and, like all campers, she wears a uniform. Girls wear navy blue knickers and boys wear blue corduroy pants. Her light blue socks designate that she is a high school student. Junior campers, grades three through six, wear navy blue knee sox. In- termediate campers wear red knee sox and are in grades seven through nine. "The uniforms make it easy to tell the campers from the visitors," ex- plained Billie Thompson, a public relations assistant at Interlochen. "The camp is divided by sex and by age. By wearing uniforms the kids don't have to worry what they look like. The staff also conforms to the uniform, but females are allowed to wear blue skirts. Red is the preferred sweater color." Thompson said there are about 20 performing areas at Interlochen. "The majority of the camp is centered around music, instrument and voice. We teach any requested instrument. Pamela Barr, in white, rehearses with cast members or "William's Window." The drama students do major shows and productions. There are about 450 performances during the summer. About 400 of them are by the campers. "Our summer staff is about 1,000. The faculty performs in recitals and displays their work in the gallery" As the high school band rehears- ed in the Interlochen Bowl, Thompson said, "lb attend Interlochen, all you have to do is apply. All campers declare a major. The junior campers come to try out their talents. They take talent exploration and try a dif- ferent instrument each week. "The intermediate campers get into specialties and have supervised practice. Every practice shed has a piano. There are over 500 pianos here. "A high school student would not want to come if they weren't good at something. There is strong competi- tion musically and when a student leaves here they will know if they are good enough to make music a career." Thompson said students have to leave a lot behind to see if they can make it, but they all respect each other's talent. "You hear everything from punk radio stations to the classics. Music and dance follow more rules than the art program, which is less structured." Part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the National Music Camp was founded in 1928 by the late Dr. Joseph E. Maddy. The Interlochen Arts Academy was founded by Mad- dy in 1962. "The academy is a boar- ding school for grades nine to 12 that offers programs in the arts," Thomp-