The Bay Area Country Dance Society Website

Tom Roby began folk dancing as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College and has been passionately pursuing it ever since. Tom's teaching style is clear, lively, and fun. He gets people moving to music as quickly as possible and communicates styling points efficiently. Beginners and advanced dancers alike enjoy Tom's infectious enthusiasm and relaxed attitude, as well as his sense of humor and quick wit.

Tom has called English dances with Bare Necessities in Dartington Hall (Devonshire) and the Assembly Hall in Bath, England. He is the English caller for the 2004 BACDS Spring Weekend in Monte Toyon, and calls regularly for English dances around the Bay area. Tom also regularly teaches balkan, international, and improvisational Hungarian dances, and has a keen interest in other couple dances, both choreographed and led/followed, e.g., waltz, zwiefache, Scandinavian, and lindy.

Versatile dance pianist Rebecca King has been playing dance music in California since 1982.  She can be heard playing English and Contra Dance in the greater San Francisco Bay area and the North Bay, mainly with the bands Flashpoint and Luceo.  Her strong classical training and her love of jazz shows in her rhythmic and lyric piano accompaniments.  By day, she teaches music in the Sonoma Valley schools.  She can also be heard on Cowboy Dancing  by Ray Bierl, and on BACDS' recent music CD Swinging On The Gate  in which she was also executive producer.

Jon Berger is a local Bay Area treasure of tunes, providing an artistry of fiddle music and then some.  He has played music for morris, English country, and contra dances since 1976 and is a regular musician at Bay Area and North Bay English country dances. A former musician for Berkeley Morris, he now plays for Apple Tree Morris in Sebastopol, as well as in in Flashpoint.  He is well-known for his powerful music, and, while playing for morris, his ability to maintain a connection between the music, the dancers and the dance (not to mention his sense of humor, and grand singing voice).   Jon is also a former member of the Renaissance trio "Cyderman's Fancy," and more recently "Tempest," a Celtic rock band that plays for an entirely different style of dancing. Between gigs, Jon has a solo law practice. He lives in Sebastopol, California with his wife, famed morris dancer and clogger Kalia Kliban, and a sufficient number of cats.

A native of Montana, Erin Vang holds degrees in horn performance from St. Olaf College and Northwestern University and has studied with Boris Rybka, Kendall Betts, and Dale Clevenger. She freelanced in the Chicago area for seven years; highlights include Le Cid and Die Walküre with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, tours of Korea and Germany with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and performances with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Symphony II, and Symphony of the Shores.

Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, she has been performing with the San Jose Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Festival Opera, Sacramento Philharmonic, Monterey Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Napa Valley Symphony, Women's Philharmonic, and the Foghorn Quartet. Erin and various beasts from the brass family have also been showing up at Bay Area English and morris events (Bufflehead Northwest Morris team having suffered a particularly acute infestation).  Erin cooks up dance mischief with Jon Berger and Noel Cragg in the acclaimed new band "Midnight Smørgåsbord."

David Newitt arrived at Swarthmore College in the fall of 1976 and was shocked to discover that this pillar of higher education had a two year physical education requirement. Faced with the alternatives of being smashed to pieces on the football field and going to "folk and square dancing," the choice was clear, and he has been dancing ever since.   Starting with international folk dancing, he was soon dragged into the local Scottish Country Dance group, the college morris and rapper sword team, and, when it started in 1978, the Kingsessing Morris team of Philadelphia. After a couple years in Colorado working for HP and teaching folk dancing, he came to Berkeley in 1982 to work on a Ph.D. in physics and to do country and display dancing. He has concentrated on country dancing in the Bay Area, teaching and playing music for regular Scottish and English dances, and calling contras and the occasional square dance.

When not dancing, David takes pictures of people's insides, doing research in Magnetic Resonance Imaging at UCSF, specializing in body parts that start with "B." David's priorities can be guessed from the final acknowledgment in his dissertation, in which he thanks: "all my friends in various dance and music groups without whose continuing support I would undoubtedly have finished this dissertation several years earlier."

Besides being the programmer for the BACDS Wednesday Night English Country Dance series, Charlie Hancock has done it all. His piano and accordion are familiar sounds at BACDS dances and camps for over 10 years. He plays for English, contra, and Scottish country dancing, and plays a bit of jazz for fun.  His checkered past has included playing rock, classical, punk, and disco.  Charlie appeared at numerous camps and festivals, including the New England Folk Festival playing piano and accordion, and can be found on recent CDs by Cathie Whitesides and Shira Kammen.  His infusion of high energy, improvisation, and equal facility in accompanying English country, contras, and ritual dancing, make him a special addition to any event. He also suffers from being an incredible friendly and nice guy.

David Strong has been playing fiddle (both folk and classical) for the last 50 years. He says that playing for English is the most elegant appreciated fun. He plays Violin and Viola for Scottish County Dancers and couple dancers.  He also enjoys playing Brazilian Choros too.

Having played English since...."gosh I can't remember... is that a problem?", he notes that "the 3/2 Dances are the hook."  David also plays with Bangers and Mash, an English Country Dance Band and has played for most of the major English Country Dance events in the Bay Area.

David is a self-employed economic consultant ("I do governments, non-profits, and businesses… not people," he says).  David lives in Oakland with his wife Mao.  They enjoy traveling overseas and looking for that just right Violin! 

With over 15 years of teaching in the Bay Area, Bob Fraley is best-known in BACDS as the long-time caller of the Palo Alto English dance, as well as co-founder of the San Jose (now Peninsula English) dance.  A favorite dancing master at both Fall Ball and Playford Ball dances in years past, he is a member of Deer Creek Morris, has performed Rapper Sword dances, and at the California Revels.  He also has a national reputation as a leader of Scandinavian couple-dancing, and has been featured for his hambo workshops at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival.  He has also taught international folk dance from countries including Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, and Israel.  Bob has performed international dances in Wisconsin, Colorado, and California, and was the artistic director of the Zavrti Dance Ensemble of Palo Alto.

Craig Johnson 's musical talents span every dance genre BACDS offers, and extend beyond to Irish and Gregorian chant. (He's also wrangled the BACDS Board as President for many years).  Instead of playing accordion for Northwest Morris and Cotswold, we'll enjoy him behind the piano. Lucky us.

Stan and Susan Kramer, sometimes called the dynamic duo of English Country Dance music, are products of that wonderful evolution - dancers turned musicians.  Stan has been playing since 1965, uplifting a 2nd and 3rd generation of dancers, for morris, and English dance, but strangely won't admit to contras.  He plays fiddle, recorder, string bass, and mentored with Pat Shaw, Phllippe Merrill and Marshall Baron.  Susan is also firmly grounded in the folk traditions, both from Berea College and as a child dancer, and who Stan says "needs no introduction because her music speaks for itself."

The Playford Ball rehearsal gives us a chance to share the wealth and spread the blame with our cavalcade of callers.  Various local and out-of-town callers will be on hand to call a few dances each, contributing to the fun with their own special style.

Ruth Anne Fraley, a long time pianist for English Country and Scandinavian, and a founding accordionist for the Deer Creek Morris Men, will be providing music for our afternoon workshop.  She's been on staff for other events, including the Playford Ball, Fall Weekend, Mendocino, and Pinewoods.  Oh, and she's also the manager for the Stanford Soccer Club girls' team the Tsunami.

Shira Kammen is fiddling extraordinaire.  A hit at English Week in 1999, 2000, 2003, the Playford Ball in 2000, and Fall Weekend in 2002, she's been a highlight of many California Revels shows. She has a degree in music from UC Berkeley and 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.

Jim Oakden has gone through a succession of musical stages, from early music to traditional. Jim has been a staff musician at many West Coast camps including Fall Weekend, both by himself and as part of The Guppies, and is currently active as a musician for English country dances, contras, Irish and Cape Breton sessions and dances from Brittany. Jim is a board member of the Traditional Dancers of Santa Cruz, led the band for the 2000 Playford Ball, and programmed the 2001 and 2002 BACDS Fall Weekends.

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Revised:  03/24/04