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| The Ball |
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Gary Roodman
discovered English and American dancing in 1976, when he went to
Pinewoods Camp for the first time. His dance life was changed forever by
that experience. In 1981, he started teaching English and American
country dancing, and in 1982 he began writing English- and contra-style
dances. He now has seven books in his Calculated Figures series and two
CDs of music for his dances. In his non-dance life, Gary is a retired
college professor who taught, among other subjects, Statistics and
Applied Mathematics. Some people have said that his analytical
orientation influences the dances he writes.
Gary's new dance, Birthday Branle (tune by Jonathan Jensen), is now
available on his
web site. |
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Jon Berger has played music for morris, English country,
and contra dances since 1976. A former musician for Berkeley Morris, he now
plays for Apple Tree Morris in Sebastopol, and in Flashpoint, a Santa
Rosa-based contra dance band. 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). He is a regular musician at Bay Area and North Bay English
country dances. Jon is also a former member of 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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| The Workshop |
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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! |
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Ruth Anne Fraley, a long time pianist
for English Country and Scandinavian, and a founding accordionist for the
Deer Creek Morris Men, will be also 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. |
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| The Sing Along |
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Cathleen Myers is the Dance Director of
The Great
Dickens Christmas Fair, and Artistic Director of
PEERS (the Period
Events & Entertainment Re-Creation Society, which produces full-scale
historical costume balls and dance classes almost every First Saturday).
A dancer since childhood, she has researched and taught historical and
vintage dance in the Bay Area since 1988. In her copious spare time, she
also performs with the Alameda Vintage Dancers and with her own group,
the PEERS Flying CirCUS, a historical music, dance and theater
performing group, most notorious for their recurring Peerless Music Hall
and Le Theatre des Vampires. |
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The Organizing Committee
The Faculty for the Fall Ball graduation are:
- The Fall Ball committee led by Helena Ivatt
- Artistic Director Gary Roodman
- Our orchestra consists of Jon Berger, Shira Kammen and Rebecca
King
- Workshop wonders come from Gary Roodman, along with David Strong and
Ruth Anne Fraley
- The evening sing-along feature the vocal exhortations of Cathleen Myers
- Sound ("what?") is courtesy of Nick Cuccia
- Grand poobah of potluck and other cuisine miracles: Heather MacKay
- The diva of decorations is Anne Miller-Bagwell
- Volunteer extortion and press gang is led by Loretta Guarino
- Our regent of registration (be nice to her!) is Helena Ivatt
- The website and roving ambassador: Ric Goldman
- Read all about it! Publicity run by Kimberley Massingale
- Dance booklets by Ric Goldman
And let's not forget all the members of the dance community who volunteered to help out and/or bring contributions for the
potluck. We couldn't have done this without you. Thanks! |
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