STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—By all accounts, Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield, who lived to be 94 and 92 respectively, would be more focused on the century ahead than the one the curtain has closed on.

"I think the vision that the ladies came up with was so compelling and so sound," said Karolynn Lestrud, a 23-year volunteer and member of Friends of Perry-Mansfield. "They called it the brotherhood of the arts believing that a dancer is a better dancer for studying acting and that an actor is a better actor for studying dance."

"The ladies," as they are affectionately referred to, forged the idea of a summer arts camp in the great outdoors in 1910 while studying performing arts at Smith College in Western Massachusetts. In 1913, with $200 they bought 15 acres in Perry's native Colorado and a home for their idea.


"(Nice) girls didn't wear ethereal costumes and dance barefoot," said Mary Mansfield VandeHooten, a descendant of Portia Mansfield. "They were way before their time I think. They were very out in the forefront."

Their vision has had a profound impact on the performing arts.

Select names of the numerous faculty and alumni through the years read like a history text for theater and modern dance. Names like Agnes de Mille, Jose Limon, Julie Harris, and Dustin Hoffman.

Today, students from across the country and the world study at Perry-Mansfield. You'll find a healthy range of ages from 8 to 20, including Sydney Suter, 16, of Boulder, Colo.

"When you think of, like, acting and dance and the entertainment world and you think of New York and all the buildings and the busy city life," said Suter. "But it's nice to come here and get a different sense, like, really get in touch with where you actually came from, which is all nature."




When the camp began students stayed in tents. They now sleep in simple cabins. Buildings that were added, most in the early-to-mid 20th century, were humble and rustic. "Cabeen" is the oldest building on the property. Initially a homesteaders cabin, it became the home of Charlotte Perry. It now houses some faculty members.

"It is pretty amazing to me the quality of the construction," said Edward Watson, Perry-Mansfield facilities and operations director. "They are 70, 80, 90 years old," and still in use.


"Both Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield really believe, and I do too, that the practice of creativity , whatever its form, changes who you are and the world that you live in," said Joan Lazarus Perry-Mansfield executive director.