Click on the name of a staff member to jump to his or her bio. Bios will be added as we receive them!
Mary Devlin Charlie Hancock Gillian Stewart
Dorrie Olsson Joanna Reiner Kalia Kliban
Judy Linsenberg Doug Olsen Andy Eggleston
Nick Cuccia Rebecca King Jon Berger
Michelle Levy Anne Bingham Goess  



Fall Frolick's Dance leaders are:
Mary Devlin --

Mary Devlin teaches English country and contra / square dancing at home in Portland, Oregon, across the U.S. and in Europe. This year, besides being on staff for Fall Frolick, Mary's engagements include the Tommerup dance weekend in Denmark, a special English country dance day in Princeton, NJ, Christmas Country Dance School at Berea, KY, and a Dance Kings (UK) holiday in Torremolinos, Spain, with another Dance Kings holiday booked for Turkey in early 2015. She also loves teaching and coaching callers. Bruce Hamilton and Mary are thrilled to be leading a caller course weekend at Halsway Manor in Somerset, England, in November.

Besides calling, teaching and dancing, Mary was President of the Country Dance and Song Society from 2003 to 2006. Mary has been program director for four BACDS English Dance & Music Weeks and two CDSS English-American Weeks at Pinewoods. Mary currently is on the Portland Country Dance Community (PCDC) Board serving as the English country dance representative and as Secretary.

Mary is delighted to be teaching at Fall Frolick -- stay tuned for fun!

Mary Devlin
 
  Gillian Stewart
Gillian Stewart was fortunate enough to be raised in the contra community of Greater Boston, and has been experimenting with as many types of Anglo-American folk dance as possible since.

Currently foreman of Orion Longsword, she also dances with several morris teams and a rapper team, and teaches percussive dance. In her copious free time she enjoys baking, fixing her bike, and playing melodeon very poorly.

 
Dorrie Olsson

Dorothy J. Olsson has given numerous workshops in historical dance and has choreographed for Piffaro, the Folger Consort, Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, Mannes Camerata (Mannes College of Music), Wake Forest University and Princeton University. Dorothy teaches at the Amherst Early Music Festival where she has directed several historical theatrical productions. Dorothy received her B. M. in Music Education, major in Bassoon, from the Crane School of Music (State University College at Potsdam, NY), and received her Master of Music in Musicology from Manhattan School of Music. She completed her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at New York University, with a dissertation on early twentieth-century dance. She was an Assistant Professor of Dance Education at New York University for ten years. Dr. Olsson has co-authored seven books on historical dance, including Terrstepery, A Primer for Historical Dance. Her article on Seventeenth-Century Dance" appears in A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth-Century Music (Schirmer Books, 1997; 2nd ed., Indiana UP, 2012)

She is the Founder and Director of the New York Historical Dance Company New York Historical Dance Company..

Dorrie Olsson
 
Joanna Reiner at Boston Ball Joanna Reiner
Joanna, a Philadelphia-based English dance caller, is known for the clarity of her teaching and her dedication to encouraging people to become better dancers. Her calling has taken her from Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, MA, to Hey Days in the Bay Area of CA, from St. Croix to Hawaii. Joanna calls regularly for the Germantown Country Dancers, is an avid dance gypsy, and in her spare time, works to support her dance habit.

Joanna is the programmer of this weekend.



Kalia Kliban
Kalia, an expert in performance dance from Appalachian clog to morris to longsword, is the house caller for the Sebastopol English dance, and a rising star on the national scene. She is an increasingly popular caller of contras as well as English. A fixture at BACDS Family Week, she's a past co-programmer of Fall Frolick.
Kalia Kliban



Our amazing musical staff
Jon Berger
Jon Berger
An astonishing fiddler and button accordion player, who has toured with _Tempest_, recorded with multiple groups, and plays with passion and drive for morris, sword, English and contra dance.
Charlie Hancock
Charlie Hancock
Charlie Hancock (CA), pianist and accordionist, is equally adept playing for English country, Scottish country, contras, and display dancing. He has played for BACDS dances, camps, and balls for 18 years, with occasional gigs further afield, including Pinewoods and the Portland (OR) English ball. He is a member of Bay Area folk ensemble Euphonia, and has recorded with Sylvia Herold, Holly Tannen, and Cathie Whitesides. Infusing jazz, swing, and Irish music, he plays with brilliance, drive, and clarity.
Rebecca King
Rebecca King
Rebecca King teaches music to hundreds of children in the Sonoma Valley Schools. By night, she plays piano at English Country dances, and in the contradance bands Flashpoint and Luceo. Her recordings include Swinging On The Gate for the Bay Area Country Dance Society, and Farnicle Huggy, a collection of 18th cen. English Country dances.

Judy Linsenberg
Judy Linsenberg
Judith Linsenberg, recorder, is one of the leading exponents of the recorder in the US. She has performed throughout the US and Europe, including solo appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center; and has been featured with such leading American ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony, the SF and Los Angeles Operas, Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, the Portland and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, the Oregon and Carmel Bach Festivals, and others. She is Artistic Director of the Baroque ensemble, Musica Pacifica, whose performances and eight recordings on the Virgin Classics and Dorian labels have received international acclaim. She has also recorded for harmonia mundi usa, Koch International, Reference Recordings, Musical Heritage Society, Drag City Records, and H?nnsler Classics.
Michelle Levy
Michelle Levy
Michelle Levy has been performing on and exploring the possibilities of bowed string instruments for 25 years. She comes from a family of artists; her grandfather, Eliezer, is a multi-instrumentalist who regularly played for folk dances in Tel-Aviv in the 1940's. Currently based in the San Francisco Bay area, California, she is Artistic Director of Redwood Guild of Early Music and is an Artist-In-Residence with Youth In Arts.

She has performed internationally with an eclectic variety of ensembles and vocalists, including The Boston Camerata and vocalists Owain Phyfe, Abby Green, Maia Archote, and Moh Alileche. She's been a featured performer at the Vancouver Early Music Festival (2013) with Sequentia & The Elaine Adair Ensemble as well as at the Connecticut Early Music Festival (2010) with Istanpitta Early Music Ensemble, and her new Contra-dance band, TriTonic, recently featured at the New England Folk Festival 2013 (NEFFA).

She's also a founding member of contra & English Country Dance band The Whoots and the 'Medieval garageband', Angelhead, featured in Early Music America's Battle of the Early Bands this May 2014 at the Berkeley Early Music Festival. She enjoys playing fiddle for contra and English country dance camps in the woods as well as performing with Shira Kammen's Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to creating music on whitewater rafting trips. www.MichelleVielle.com

Anne Bingham Goess
Anne Bingham Goess
Anne loves playing for Irish dancing (when she's not dancing herself!) She has entertained at the Starry Plough, the UICC and festivals with the Wild Hog Ceili Band and Celtic chanteuse Melanie O'Reilly, toured with the Three Irish Tenors, and brightened Krakow nightlife with a solo concert at the cafe Nowa MÅoda Polska. She can also be heard playing for English and Contra dances with the Raggedy Annes, and singing, dancing and fiddling onstage with the Christmas Revels.
 

  Andy Eggleston
Andy Eggleston
Andy writes:

I was classically trained on violin and then viola from a fairly early age, but fell in love with improvised music in the jazz clubs of New York City when I moved there after high school. I was thrilled to start at Berklee College of Music in 2002, and earned my Bachelor's degree there in 2005. It was an exciting place to be a student and presented many opportunities for playing music with exciting people. For example, I got to play in Carnegie Hall, back up Steven Tyler, open for k.d. Lang, and appear live on TV with a major Japanese pop star.

Traditional New England and Cape Breton fiddlers were also a big influence and inspiration for me growing up, and since moving to the Bay Area, I have returned to those roots and have primarily been playing fiddle. I have added a little bluegrass to the mix, greatly enjoying my studies with Chad Manning. You can find me fiddling with the Raggedy Annes at local contra dances, playing with my newgrass band, Outbound, or out at a jam session.

 

Doug Olsen
Doug Olsen
A song leader with an extensive repertoire of Elizabethan drinking songs - and more! - Doug always offers a good time.

Nick Cuccia
Nick Cuccia
Nick Cuccia returns as our sound technician. Highly regarded by dancers, musicians, and callers for his high-quality sound work, Nick has handled the board for too many dances, balls, camps, and special events for BACDS, the North Bay Country Dance Society, and the Sacramento Country Dance Society to count during the past decade.
 


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