A Choice Selection of Country Dances from the Year 1726

Kalia Kliban

Dance leader

Kalia Kliban’s first exposure to folk dance was at a square dance in Portland, Oregon, in the early 1980s, but she didn’t go all in until she started attending the weekly Irish ceilidhs at the Starry Plough pub in Berkeley around 1984. From there, she was recruited onto a Morris team, then a performance group at the Renaissance Faire, and then started contra dancing, clogging, English dancing, longsword and rapper sword dancing, and teaching. In 2003 she started working as a caller of English country and then in 2012, contra dance.

She has taught at dance camps, events, and festivals across the United States and in England and Europe. Her welcoming and relaxed teaching style has helped dancers of all levels experience the joy of traditional dance.

When she’s not behind the microphone, you can find her behind the lathe, either teaching a new generation of woodturners or creating her own elegant and functional woodenware. Her bowls are in collections and kitchens across the country, and in addition to demonstrating and teaching for turning clubs across the country, she has also been a demonstrator and panelist at American Association of Woodturners national symposiums. You can see her work at kaliakliban.com, on Instagram at @kaliakliban, or on Facebook.

Mary Luckhardt

Dance leader

After more than 30 years convinced she had been born a non-dancer, Mary discovered English country dance in Berkeley with Bruce Hamilton as her first teacher in about 1984. At about the same time she also took ECD workshops at the Northern California Renaissance Faire, eventually dancing with Newcastle Country Dancers for five years. While becoming an experienced dancer, she also became involved in the administrative side of BACDS, first as manager of the Berkeley dance, then as a BACDS Board member, and as manager and treasurer of various BACDS weekends and special events. She called her first dances at the SFFMC’s Camp Harmony when dancers there demanded a leader. She honed her calling skills, again under Bruce Hamilton’s guidance, and called local dances for about 10 years, culminating with programming and presenting the 2015 Playford Ball. After that she chose to mostly leave the calling to others and do her “teaching” by good example from the floor (except for Camp Harmony, where she kept her hand in as a caller).

In the early 2000s she discovered a passion for the music and complex dances of the early 18th century when Andrew Shaw first came to California. This led to numerous visits to Pinewoods and New London Assembly, and several visits to England for more dances from Andrew. In 2018, she worked with Kalia, Sharon, and Graham Christian to put on a 300th Anniversary Ball of dances published in 1718, that Great Year.

Mary is delighted to work with these old friends to celebrate the dances from what she considers “the first Golden Age” of English country dance.

Robert Mealy

Violin

Robert Mealy is one of America’s most prominent Baroque violinists. The New York Times remarked that “Mr. Mealy seems to foster excellence wherever he goes, whether as director of the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, concertmaster of the Trinity Baroque Orchestra in New York, or at The Juilliard School, as director of the historical performance program.”

While still an undergraduate, he was asked to join the Canadian Baroque orchestra Tafelmusik; after graduating he began performing with Les Arts Florissants. Since then, he has recorded and toured with many ensembles both here and in Europe, and served as concertmaster for Masaaki Suzuki, Nicholas McGegan, Helmuth Rilling, Paul Agnew, and William Christie, among others. He is especially happy playing chamber music with his colleagues in Quicksilver.

Other recent chamber projects have ranged from creating a series of Ars Subtilior programs for The Cloisters in New York to performing the complete Bach violin and harpsichord sonatas at Washington’s Smithsonian Museum. Mr. Mealy has directed the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School since 2012 and has led his Juilliard students in acclaimed performances both in New York and abroad, including tours to Europe, India, New Zealand, and, most recently, Bolivia. Before coming to Juilliard, he taught for many years at Yale and Harvard. In 2004, he received EMA’s Binkley Award for outstanding teaching and scholarship. He still likes to practice.

Katherine Heater

Harpsichord

A native of San Francisco, Katherine Heater plays keyboards with Bay Area early music groups such as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Musica Pacifica, and the Voices of Music. She has performed throughout the United States, including with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho, and at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, the Bloomington Early Music Festival, and the Tropical Baroque Festival of Miami.

She received an Arts Bachelor from the University of California, Berkeley, in music and a Master of Music in historical performance from Oberlin Conservatory. At the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, Ms. Heater studied harpsichord with Bob van Asperen and fortepiano with Stanley Hoogland. Also an active teacher, Ms. Heater teaches harpsichord at UC Berkeley and piano at Crowden.