Life At Shepherd's Nine

Shepherd's Nine, The Summer School of the Noyes School of Rhythm since 1919, is located on 100 acres of lush woodland above the Great Hill Lake. Life at Shepherd's Nine is an outdoor life. It is ordered yet restful and free.

Each summer women of all ages come to celebrate simplicity, artistry, and the power of movement through Noyes Rhythm. The camp welcomes women-- and men in our co-ed week-- of all professions and walks of life. It is not important that you have any dance experience before you arrive. Yet dancers and artists claim this work deepens and enlivens what they already know. We welcome campers without regard to race, creed, color or national origin.

We dance in the Pavalon, a wooden floor sheltered by a roof but open to the great forest and grassy grounds, polished by seasons of dancers. Art work is done in an old brook school-house, led by the Artists in Residence, or your own muse.

The air is sweet and the water from our underground spring. We eat together indoors or out. Campers are gathered with a bell for breakfast, dinner and supper in the candlelit dining room of our old Connecticut Farm house (1776). We live close to nature in the privacy of comfortable tents with floors, beds, shelves, and lanterns. The Farm House provides warmth from its fireplaces on rainy days, a recreation room with a small library and cupboard store, a few bedrooms, the offices, and an attic and trunk room full of costumes and curiosities.

We wear leotards, tunics, and barefeet or comfy shoes. There are hot or cold "amazon" showers just down the path. Evenings are spent dancing freely to music provided by our professional pianists.