ECD Fundamentals will give you a solid grasp of the essentials — musical rhythms, figures and steps — using simple, popular dances. A great introduction to English country dancing, a chance to go back and learn thoroughly things you have picked up, or just a fun way to get questions answered.

ECD: Becoming a Dancer will focus on developing good skills and habits, rather than on new dances. We’ll explore listening and responding to music, seeing the other dancers as people, dealing with mistakes (yours and others’), carrying yourself lightly and moving with grace and power, and finding perfection in simple figures. These are big subjects, so the class will merely open the door to these. Exploring the territory beyond is your challenge for the next decade!

The Callers’ Workshop will help you make the shift from teaching dances to teaching people. If you’re already there you can get useful feedback and hone your skills. Some of the topics include: giving and receiving feedback (many say this is the most valuable part of the workshop), the psychology of groups (how can you be in charge when the dancers are the customers?), brevity, working with a band (how to keep them happy and be comfortable yourself), and what callers need to know about dance music. You’ll also get practice time with forgiving dancers.

Scottish as a Second Language will give you a gentle introduction to this cousin of ECD or a chance to dance in a relaxed setting if it’s already in your dance repertoire. Experience the strength and elegance of Scottish strathspeys and the high energy and sense of flight of the jigs and reels. Youíll learn the basic footwork (without a lot of drill) and dance, dance, dance.

ECD in Performance will be mostly dancing, though we may spend some time exploring what audiences like and what patterns they can see. We’ll perfect some dances for performance and create some fun and entertaining dance medleys.

Advanced ECD: Impropriety If you are completely comfortable with all the basic ECD figures and familiar with many of the unusual ones, if you learn dances quickly without needing them called after the first few times through, you'll enjoy this challenging class focusing on the more complex dances from Impropriety volumes 1 and 2, dances by Brooke Friendly and Chris Sackett.

The Longsword will be In The Good Old Way, an English style longsword dance for 6 dancers to a vigorous hymn tune. It is moderately aerobic and does not include any human pretzel moves (such as double overs). If you’ve never done longsword, this will be a great introduction. If you are on a team, this is a chance to learn from the best. Come experience this inventive longsword choreographer and fabulous teacher. Open to all dancers. Wear sticky shoes.

The King of Sweden is a Scottish Step Dance in a hardshoe version. Originally notated as a ladies’ step dance (soft shoes), it clearly has elements of the older hardshoe styles. Judy’s version has been revised as a hardshoe dance, with adjustment of some of the steps to reflect hardshoe styling. This will be a good introduction to hardshoe stepping as the steps range from basic to technically challenging. It has a lovely tune with a great story.

Rapper Sword will be in the Newbiggen tradition and open to all dancers. This is a great opportunity to learn or review the magical sword dances of the Northeast of England. If you’ve never done rapper before and never thought you could, Alistair will get you up and dancing—youíll amaze yourself and your friends. Experienced rapper sword dancers will have loads of fun as well.

Border Morris is a boisterous and energetic dance form from the border area of England and Wales. The dances are primarily stick dances, relying to a great extent on the impact of the performance. The dancers may cover their faces with colored make-up and wear costumes decorated with many ribbons or strips of material. Learn some of the newer dances that are popular among teams dancing Border Morris in England and a couple of the traditional ones as well.

Class 5 Grab Bag sessions will be hosted by a variety of staff and campers and will not meet Wednesday or Friday. ECD and Beyond will include Cape Breton, Judy teaching ECD as she teaches longsword, and ECD for all with Brooke. Display Dance Grab Bag will include a change to share dances and work up performances for the Morris Tour. Musicians Grab Bag will include slow jam and coached camper band practice. Singing Grab Bag is a time available for organized or spontaneous gathering of singers—swap rounds, Balkan singing, Shape Note, singing circle, or…?