The Bay Area Country Dance Society Website

A New Vision - we've listened to your feedback:

We're making some changes to camp this year.  If you've been to camp in the last two years, you know that we've had parallel tracks, include two separate dances on Saturday night.  That put those of us who love dancing, not just Contra dancing or just English dancing, in a very tight spot: which of our friends do we dance with now?  It also required more staff, which drove up the camp's cost.  It also relegated half of our community to Monte Toyon's dining hall for most of the weekend, including the "main event" dance on Saturday night.

This year, the "dual track" is being relaxed: while we're generally offering two or three classes all the time, there won't be a strict Contra/English separation.  Most importantly, we're bringing the entire community together for the Saturday night dance.  We're modeling the program on three of the most popular east coast dance camps: CDS Boston's July 4th weekend at Pinewoods, CDSS's Timber Ridge dance week and CDSS's Pinewoods English and American dance week.  These sessions consistently fill camp, and the Pinewoods E&A week is even more popular among young adults than the CDSS American dance week.  We're planning to break the evening dances on Friday and Saturday roughly into 45 minute quarters, two English and two Contra, observing that 45 minutes is enough time to get a dance "high" and smaller chunks of time aren't as satisfying. We're looking into starting those evening dances a little earlier, too, to make the chunks longer.

We've hired a killer staff who can bring this vision together.

Our music will be provided by two of the hottest bands on the Contra dance circuit today: the Latter Day Lizards and Contra Sutra. The Lizards were at BACDS's Balance the Bay in 2010 and rocked the house.  Contra Sutra did a Bay Area tour in November 2010 including the Grass Valley dance and were wildly popular.  The only hard part for us is deciding which of them should be the "headliner".

English dance camp aficionados may worry that we're hiring "contra" bands.  Worry not.  Look closer, and you'll be delighted. Each of the Lizards are accomplished ECD musicians in their own right, topped off with Peter Barnes, who plays with Bare Necessities.  Contra Sutra includes Dave Bartley of KGB fame.  Ryan McKasson, their fiddler, is moderately new to ECD, but in combination with Dave has played some of the best ECD music around.  He was also at last year's Spring Weekend as part of the Syncopaths.  Contra Sutra has also played for ECD in the Bay Area, including a Sebastopol dance in November 2009.  You may also notice that this musical staff of seven includes three(!) woodwind players.

Our calling staff is not yet complete, but we have a great start!  Scott Higgs was on staff at American week at Mendocino this summer, where he delighted all with his Contra dances.  He's also one of the best (if not the best) English callers in the world.  He's particularly good at creating smooth, seamless dance evenings that will delight all, like our "main event" dance parties on Friday and Saturday nights.

With all this changing, what's staying the same?  First, the focus on teaching: we noticed how popular Seth Tepfer's playshops were last year—our campers reported delight at being challenged and learning.  We'll be doing even more of that this year.  Second, the fun late-night dancing—there will be camper-led late night dancing, which has been one of the high points of both the BACDS Spring and Fall weekends.  Third, the facility—Monte Toyon, set in a grove of coastal redwoods close to Santa Cruz, has a beautiful main dance floor with nearby modern dormitories.  On-site tenting and RV space are available, as are off-site lodging options.  And it's easily accessible from bay area airports. Fourth, financial accessibility—while the facility keeps increasing its fees to us, we're trying to keep ours down. We also have excellent work trade opportunities and subsidies for younger campers.  Don't let money stop you from coming to camp! If there's an issue, talk to us!

In summary, this is a great weekend for those who love to DANCE.  If you're dubious about English dancing, this is a great place to shatter your doubts—you know the bands and callers are great for contra—see how delightful and high-energy ECD can be when you have good music.  Also know that you'll get your dance highs—in addition to continuous blocks of contra in the main dance parties, we're planning a daytime "just dance" session as well as the late night dancing.  If you're instead dubious about contra, one of the best times to try it is at a weekend filled with people who also love English dance.  We're also planning a daytime "no walk through" English dance session so you can get some dance highs.

We looking forward to having you join us!