Special Events and Projects

In addition to our dance series and camps, BACDS and its performance teams have a number of special events. These range from formal and costume balls to sunrise dances to appearances in a neighborhood near you.

Elixir Dance January 14, 2010 / Playford Ball / CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award Ceremony honoring Chuck Ward &em; March 28, 2010 May Day / Morris Season / Halloween Ball / Fall Ball / No Snow Ball / New Years' Eve English Dance / Swinging On The Gate 25th Anniversary Bash Ceilidh Workshops / Couple-Dance Party / English workshop with Michael Barraclough

Elixir in Mountain View January 14, 2010

The nationally known band Elixir (Nils Fredland, Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, Jesse Hazzard-Watkins, Anna Patton, and Owen Morrison) played a special dance January 14, 2010 at the SFV Lodge at 361 Villa Street in Mountain View. Watch this page for more information. Sponsored by the Friends of the Palo Alto Contra Dance.

Chuck Ward's Lifetime Contribution Award

Sunday, March 28, 2010, at the Albany Veteran's Memorial Building, 1325 Portland Avenue (off Key Route Boulevard), Albany, CA, from 2:00 - 6:00 pm, we'll have an afternoon of music, song, and dance, with tributes to Chuck, and tales of his musical pranks and escapades. Admission to this celebration is free.

The CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award goes to Chuck Ward, longtime keyboard player for English dance and active in the Bay Area since before BACDS existed. CDSS President Brad Foster will present the award, Kalia Kliban will be MC, and music will be provided and dances led by musicians and callers whose lives Chuck has touched.

See the flyer for more information, potluck info, volunteer opportunities, etc.

PDF: Sharon Green's CDSS News article about Chuck

PDF: Comments and stories about Chuck

Playford Ball

BACDS's Playford Ball, started in 1980 by Brad Foster, is one of BACDS's earliest and most popular activities. While some communities have Playford Balls that limit themselves exclusively to dances that were published in John Playford and his descendents between 1650 and the late 1700s, ours covers dances written from 1650 to today. Starting in 2010, the Ball will be held at the historic San Jose Women's Club building. The Playford Ball takes place in late March or early April.

The Playford Ball, as well as the rehearsal dance the evening beforehand (starting in 2010, held at the Hill and Valley Club in Hayward)) and additional practice dances in the east bay, Peninsula, and Sierra Foothills, are organized by a large committee that devotes a great deal of effort to making the Ball a splendid event. As a result, Ball attendees are treated to marvelous decorations, excellent food, and exquisite music. Very little dance instruction is required at the Ball, in large part because the Ball program and dance directions are distributed to west coast callers the November prior to the Ball.

Formal or festive attire is encouraged among ball attendees, with many attendees choosing to wear period costume (although hoops and panniers are discouraged due to space considerations) or outfits relating to the year's theme. Attendance has been between 150-200 for the past several years; sizable contingents from southern California and the Pacific northwest, as well as attendees from New York, Boston, and Alaska, have been in regular attendance.

May Day

From time immemorial (which is to say, since the Oxford University Morris Men first joined an existing college-sponsored May Day dawn festivity during the 1920s), morris dancers have danced up the sun on the first of May. Some say they do it because it wouldn't come up otherwise.

BACDS teams have been dancing the sun up in Berkeley since 1978, Palo Alto since 1985, Santa Cruz since 1991, and San Francisco since the late 1990s. In each of these locations, the event has become a local tradition attracting several hundred non-dancing attendees.

Morris Season

The different types of English display dance have their own distinctive seasons in their native habitat. Cotswold morris teams, with their sticks, hankies, and high leaps, are most visible between late April and late June. Northwest morris, featuring large groups, clogs, and processional dances, are traditionally found in autumn. Wintertime traditions include the precision of longsword and rapper teams; rag coats, sticks, and screaming of border teams, and Molly dancing's drag outfits and parodies of English country dance. While many BACDS teams perform these transplanted traditions year-round, performances tend to be more prevalent during the traditional seasons.

Most BACDS teams gather annually at the Stanford Spring Fair (which used to be, officially, the "Bridge Fair", and people still call it that, but you won't find it through google unless you use "Spring Fair") during Mother's Day weekend. There have also been "morris days" at the northern Renaissance Pleasure Faire in late summer and Dickens Fair in mid-December.

Halloween Ball

Held on the last Saturday in October, the Halloween contra is a special edition of the Palo Alto contradance, with calling by Eric Black and Special Ghosts. Door and costume prizes add to the festivity of the event; costumes display the amazing creativity of the dance community. In 2009, the contra proper was followed by an hour of couple dancing.

Fall Ball

Started in 1995 as a less-formal complement to the Playford Ball, the Fall Ball is an English country dance ball with a workshop during the afternoon of the event. The program has usually had a theme, featuring (for example) a preponderance of dances by Pat Shaw, Gary Roodman, or bay area choreographers, or showing the influence of Playford in the New World.

Callers have included David Newitt, Jenny Beer, Lise Dyckman, Jody McGeen, Bruce Hamilton, Robin Hayden, and (in 2006) Gary Roodman. The event usually (but not always) occurs on the third Saturday in November.

No-Snow Ball

Some east coast communities have Snow Balls, festive contra balls and cotillions that take place in the midst of snowy winter. The No-Snow Ball, so-named because of the dearth of the white powder in coastal northern California, is a holiday contradance party (modeled after the Concord, MA, Christmas Cotillion) that takes place on the first Saturday evening in December,at Oakland's Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, 4700 Lincoln Avenue (next to the Mormon Temple, off Highway 13). Dances are called by Santa Claus and one of his assistants, with music provided by several of Santa's favorite helpers.

Festive dress is encouraged for the event, which in 2009 runs 7:30-11:30 pm, December 5, 2009, with delicious potluck fare awaiting the dancers at break. There's a newcomer's welcome at 7:00 pm Callers: Santa Claus and "O Tinanbaum" Fields. Music by The Hillbillies from Mars (Ray Bierl, Kevin Carr, Paul Kotapish, Daniel Steinberg) plus Cathie Whitesides.

Admission is $21 for BACDS members, $25 for non-members. A limited number of work exchange discounts are available for your participation on the Ball Committee (decorations, food preparation, setup, cleanup, etc.). Please email nosnowball@bacds.org

DIRECTIONS

From 580 Freeway in Oakland, take Fruitvale Ave exit Northbound. Turn right onto MacArthur, left onto Lincoln. Cathedral is on the right about 1 mile up Lincoln.

From 13 Freeway in Oakland, take Joaquin Miller / Lincoln Ave exit, take Lincoln down the hill. Cathedral is on the left just past the Mormon Temple.

The Cathedral has a parking garage.

Yahoo Map Link

New Years' Eve English Dance

This all started with the turn of the Millenium. December 31, 1999 was a fifth Friday, and a regularly-scheduled Palo Alto English dance. So, we had a New Years' Eve dance to welcome in the year 2000.

We liked it so much that we did it again, and again and we're still doing it in 2009! This is a low-key holiday party. Lots of dancing, great music, potluck food, and good friends. Come join us at special location St. Bede's Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road (at Monte Rosa) in Menlo Park. Beginner's Workshop 8:00 pm - dance 8:30 - midnight, potluck at midnight. December 31, 2009.

Swinging On The Gate

Swinging On The Gate, BACDS's first recording, features tracks by fourteen of the bay area's finest dance bands. Made with the generous assistance of the Country Dance and Song Society's May Gadd/Phil Merrill Endowment Fund, many of the tracks are typical of what you would hear at bay area contra dances, with a few English country tunes mixed in. Performers on the CD include the Hillbillies From Mars, Shira Kammen & Jim Oakden, The Contrabandits, Stump Tail Dog, and Tipsy House.

The CD is available for fifteen dollars from many of the musicians on the recording, as well as at the San Francisco contra.

25th Anniversary Bash

On May 20, 2007, BACDS celebrated 25 years with a day of music, contra dance, English dance, morris dance, history, and general fun. BACDS founder Brad Foster, Bruce Hamilton, the Hillbillies from Mars, Flashpoint, and many, many more callers and musicians were there for our pleasure, At the Nature Friends Center in the Oakland Hills, with two floors of dancing, a history room, and more. Lots of info at the event website

Ceilidh Workshops

BACDS has the occasional English ceilidh/barn dance workshop. In 2003, we were pleased to play host to legendary ceilidh caller Pete Grassby and members of the Aardvark Ceilidh Band for a full day of workshops and dance.

In 2004, we played host to English traditional dance expert Hugh Rippon and English ceilidh band Four in a Bar. For more information about Hugh's workshops and dances, please visit the event series web page.

Couple Dance Party

In October 2005, BACDS took advantage of the presence of legendary musicians Mary Lea and Jacqueline Schwab to have a special couple dance party at St. Clement's Church in Berkeley on Tuesday, October 11. (Mary, Jacqueline, and Earl Gaddis also played at the Berkeley Wednesday English dance on the 12th, and at Fall Dance Weekend October 14-16.) It was a lovely evening of waltzes, tango waltzes, polkas, schottisches, and a couple of sequence dances (like "Gypsy Wine", the title track from one of Mary's couple-dance recordings) and mixers or country dances, led by Alan Winston and Lise Dyckman.

More info at the web page.

English Dance Workshop with Michael Barraclough

On October 25, 2008, at All Soul's Episcopal in Berkeley (it's at 2220 Cedar, just up the street from Grace North), Michael Barraclough will lead a special English dance workshop for experienced dancers. Michael, recently relocated from England to Virginia, is a well-known caller and reconstructor, and he's extending his visit for Fall Frolick to do special events here. The workshop will be accompanied by Jon Berger (fiddle) and Chuck Ward (piano.), and goes from 2-5 pm. Special price; $12 for all. Stick around Berkeley for dinner and come back at 8:00 for the 4th Saturday experienced English dance, where these two great musicians will be joined by Erik Ievins on cello.