Program: Class Descriptions

Click on the links below for details of the 2022 classes.

 

ECD for All

For dancers of ALL abilities
Bruce Hamilton with Shira Kammen, Jim Oakden, Chip Prince

Learn dances in the common repertoire, dances that need more teaching than the usual week night, and take an advance look at one of each evening's dances. Gain skill at memorizing dances and recovering from mistakes.

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ECD (Advanced): Body and Soul

For SKILLED and ACCOMPLISHED dancers
Bruce Hamilton with Persons of Quality (Jon Berger, Jim Oakden, Rebecca King)

This session is for intermediate and accomplished dancers. You'll need a strong sense of orientation, be able to learn a dance of moderate difficulty with just a couple of walkthroughs, and able to recover quickly. You should be comfortable with all standard figures and any rhythm.

Discover some of the great dances that are accessible only at this level. Explore overarching skills such as how we hold and play our instrument, how we talk and listen to each other, and hearing the music.

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ECD: Dancing Shapes

For dancers of ALL abilities
Bridget Whitehead with Audrey Knuth, Miranda Arana, Rebecca King

English country dance is full of beautiful shapes: sweeping lines, swirling circles, crisp squares, serpentines, shapes that appear just for a moment and are gone. We'll use visual awareness, physical connection, and musical phrasing to help us explore dances that celebrate the geometric beauty of ECD.

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ECD (Advanced): Signatures

For SKILLED and ACCOMPLISHED dancers
Kalia Kliban with Jon Berger, Miranda Arana, Chip Prince

What is it that tells you that a dance was written by a particular person? What defines a choreographer's style? Each day will focus on the work of an individual choreographer or interpreter and what makes their style distinctive. This advanced class will feature a mix of familiar and lesser-known challenging dances.

Dancers will need a confident and competent familiarity with all the basics, a certain tolerance for chaos and an ability to recover well from (and forgive) mistakes.

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ECD for All: Signatures

For dancers of ALL abilities
Kalia Kliban with Audrey Kunth, Charlie Hancock

What is it that tells you that a dance was written by a particular person? What defines a choreographer's style? Each day will focus on the work of an individual choreographer or interpreter and what makes their style distinctive. Enjoy welcoming and accessible material--old favorites, and hopefully some new ones as well--with a completely different program than the advanced class.

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Longsword

No prior longsword experience needed
Lynn Baumeister assisted by Laura Robertson with Jon Berger

“Clockwork” is a vigorous non-traditional Longsword dance (choreography) from the repertoire of Cutting Edge Sword. For 6 dancers with an unusual nut at the end, the footwork includes a step-hop and a light jog. Check it out here. Note: We will modify the swinging swords in the 'overs'.

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Couple Dance

For dancers of ALL abilities
Lynn Baumeister and Lisa Tamres assisted by Laura Robertson, with Audrey Knuth, Charlie Hancock

We will start with waltz – including tips for getting a smooth turn as well as variations in both open and couple position you can mix and match on the dance floor. Then we'll expand into some lovely couple dances popular in the Balfolk scene: scottish, mazurka, valse, and perhaps le valses asymétriques (valse à 5 temps, valse à 8 temps, valse à 11 temps).

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Balfolk

For dancers of ALL abilities
Lynn Baumeister and Lisa Tamres with Shira Kammen, Jim Oakden, Charlie Hancock

Have fun with traditional French dances that have become part of the core Balfolk repertoire - by the end of the week you'll be ready to attend a bal! Expect trance-inducing chain dances from Brittany, bourrées from Central France in different configurations, and potentially a rondeau from Gascogne. We will also look at BalFolk versions of some of the couple dances, and review the BalFolk scene in general.

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Songs for the Session

Open to ALL
Jeff Warner

Become famous in your neighborhood! Introduce great chorus songs into your local tune sessions. Or catch everyone's ear as you begin a singaround at your local church or pub. We'll explore songs that have invited group participation for generations and discuss song-leading and how to introduce a song, whether it's at a pub or a school gathering. If you like, bring a chorus song to lead and get a little bit of feedback. Otherwise, come and enjoy the participatory singing – there will be many great songs.

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Chorus Songs for All

Open to ALL
Jeff Warner

Singing fun for all! Songs with fine choruses from a variety of traditions-sea songs, works songs, drinking songs, love songs, shanties, sentimental songs, gospel songs, silly songs, ballads, and laments from both side of the Atlantic. Chorus words provided.

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Musical Zen: Explorations in Sound

Open to ALL
Miranda Arana

Get out of the box and go cosmic! Together we will explore sound as it relates to physical, mental, and interpersonal experience. Dancers in need of a break are also welcome to attend!

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Historic Settings of ECD Tunes

For musicians of ALL levels
Shira Kammen

Explore a variety of historical settings of English Country Dance tunes. We'll look at two to four part settings of the Renaissance and early Baroque Playford collections (some set to melodies by Purcell and his contemporaries), some of the classical music adapted for English Dance, elegant 'Jane-Austin-ish' tunes, as well as gnarly versions of folk and ballad tunes.

Ability to read music will be very useful for this class.

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Topcis in Ensemble Playing

For musicians of ALL levels
Chip Prince

Every musician has something valuable to contribute to a dance band. We will explore such topics as building ensemble skills, making stylistic choices, setting appropriate tempos, establishing common language and visual cues with each other, communicating with the caller, improvisation (or not), and how to bring your own individual gifts to the table to enrich an ensemble.

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Camper Band

For musicians of ALL levels
Sande Gillette

While we rehearse and prepare the music for Campers’ Night, we will discuss good band techniques, improvisation, harmony, accompanying, “noodling”, leading, and communicating with callers. After Campers’ Night we will explore tunes in Barnes 3 “The Green Book”.

Prerequisites: you should be familiar enough with your instrument(s) that you can play scales of up to 3 flats and sharps, play at dance tempo on your instrument, and either read music or play confidently by ear.

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Care of Body and Mind

Open to ALL
Bridget Whitehead

Enjoy a daily refresher to keep you dancing all week long. Yoga, stretching and other gentle techniques to loosen tight muscles, decrease soreness, and cultivate peace of mind. No yoga background is required and multiple options will be given to accommodate different bodies. [Some yoga mats will be available, though you are welcome to bring your own.]

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Fun and Games

Open to ALL
Kalia Kliban

Come out and play! Each day we'll have a different set of games and activities. Some indoors, some outdoors, and perhaps even by the pool! Opportunities for throwing things, relays, strategy, chair games, word and visual games, and the unclassifiable, such as potato dangling, ghost, cracker whistling, and bite the bag. Bring your willingness to get silly! The energy level will vary day by day, and you're welcome to drop in and out as needed.

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