English dance music and music workshops by  Shira Kammen, Daron Douglas, and Karen Axelrod

American contradance music and music workshops with Lift Ticket (Rex Blazer, Sam Bartlett, and Seth Houston)

Singing with Sylvia Herold

Sound by Nick Cuccia

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Staff Biographies

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Brooke Friendly

Brooke Friendly has been folk and country dancing for over 30 years. She is known for her friendly yet commanding personality, her ability to convey directions concisely and clearly, her creativity and her sense of humor and whimsy. She has a strong sense of what makes for a good community and makes the learning experience fun and relaxing. Brooke leads a weekly English and Scottish Country Dance in Ashland Oregon and calls at dances around the US. She was on staff at the BACDS English dance week at Mendocino

Brooke brings us English Country Dancing with globally-based calling. Impropriety, a book of new English and Scottish dances in collaboration with her husband Chris Sackett was published this year. These include such favorites a "Puck's Deceit", "Impropriety", and "The Molly Andrew".

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Ron Buchanan

Ron Buchanan of Pennsylvania brings us contras, squares, and swing dance instruction. A renowned leader and choreographer - his "Coal Country Contra" is classic - he does camps all over the country.

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Susan Kevra

Hilary Roberts, artistic director of Jubilee American Dance Theatre (and of nearly a dozen companies before it) will teach Appalachian Clog and a performance technique class on how to present whatever dance you do as a real show.

Hilary has been involved in the international and regional American folk dance communities, both in the Bay Area and in New York City, since 1968. She has participated in many capacities; dancer, choreographer, teacher, panelist, advocate and artistic director. From 1979-1986, Ms. Roberts was a performer and company assistant with the Tomov Yugoslav Folk Ensemble of New York City, and from 1984-1986 was an invited dancer with the Guszaly Hungarian Dance Ensemble, also of New York City. Upon moving to the Bay Area in 1986, she joined Westwind International Folk Ensemble as a dancer and singer, and from 1989-1997 held the position of Artistic Director for Westwind. In 1994, Ms. Roberts joined Forgatos Hungarian Dance Ensemble and danced with them through 1996. She founded her own company, Jubilee American Dance Theatre in 1999, for which she is also Artistic Director.

Hilary's full bio

Karen Axelrod plays piano for English, American and Scottish dance and has been on staff at numerous dance events around the country (and is soon to do a bunch of gigs in Denmark). Karen is highly regarded for her creative and rich piano accompaniment. She also plays accordion for the renowned longsword team, Orion Longsword. She plays in the band Foxfire (with Daron Douglas) and Woodlark (with Earl Gaddis and Chris Rua). Karen is also a professional dog walker.

Here is Karen's listing on the Dance Gypsy.

is a rabid, irrepressible mandolin, banjo and guitar player, known to dancers across the country for his fine musicianship and philosophy of Stuntology. He's played with Uncle Gizmo, Reckless Ramblers, and other fine bands, and been a favorite at BACDS camps since 1990. To find out more, see Sam's website

Shira Kammen

SHIRA KAMMEN's fiddling is always a hit at Mendocino English Week and Fall Weekend. Her band workshops always encourage the players to push themselves along. She's played for the BACDS Playford Ball, CDSS dance camps, and regular English dances. She's been a highlight of many Christmas Revels shows. She has a degree in music from UC Berkeley. She is a member of Ensembles Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings. She has performed and taught around the US and the world, and is at home in many musical genres, including English and Breton.  

Here is Shira's website.

"But I *am* dancing! It's just that my partner is electronic and has a lot of knobs!" is how Nick responds when asked why he's listening to music instead of dancing. Highly regarded by dancers, callers, and musicians for the attention that he pays to the needs of those on and off the stage, Nick is the house sound engineer for the San Francisco, Berkeley, and Sonoma contra dances and the Berkeley experienced English dance. Taking equal joy in producing contra, English, and other folk and couple dance music of the highest quality, Nick's credits as lead or assistant sound engineer include numerous BACDS events and camps (English Week, Fall Weekend, Fall Ball, Sierra Swing, and local tours by The Flying Romanos, Pete Grassby, and Four in a Bar), the first two NBCDS Mad Robin English balls, the San Francisco Free Folk Festival, and the Fairfield (IA) Folk Arts and Dance Co-op's annual Bare Necessities dance weekends.

DARON DOUGLAS plays fiddle for dancing. She thanks her grandmother for passing on family ballads (many of which were collected by Cecil Sharp from Daron's great-grandmother, Jane Gentry, in 1916 and 1917) and also for her love of gardening. Daron has played with the Knoxville Early Music Project and the Hominy Mamas (a trio once billed at a library party as "providing an evening of song and comedy" even though they thought of their work as traditional Appalachian singing games!). She also plays with the contra dance band Misbehavin', known for their original waltz CD's, "Just Over the Mountain" and "Somewhere Between Here and Home." Daron has been on the staff at Country Dance and Song Society dance camps, at Ashokan fiddle & dance camps, and at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C., teaching and playing English country dance fiddle. She now lives and plays music in New Orleans, and tours throughout the USA to play English country dances and contra dances at festivals and dance camps on her own and with the bands Goldcrest and Foxfire.

She was at Fall Weekend as part of Barley Moon in 2003, and as part of Goldcrest in 2005. We're glad to have Daron back at camp.

for the past decade has been pursuing her passion for American popular songs of the '30s and '40s with the vocal trio Cats and Jammers. She also plays Irish trad music and is part of "Wake the Dead". For more information, see Sylvia's website. Sylvia has been a popular song leader at earlier Fall Weekends, and brings a different repertoire to camp.