The Bay Area Country Dance Society Website

BACDS Fall Ball
"Quite a Song and Dance"

November 20, 2010

The Ball

Ric Goldman has been a part of the Bay Area dance community since the early 90's, performing and teaching English country, Contra, Irish set, morris, longsword, and international folk dance. He has called English Country and Contra dances throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K. and given many workshops for adults and children.  He takes particular satisfaction in sharing his excitement of these dance styles with as many people as possible.  He has been known to succumb to writing new dances, usually named after friends who ply him with Coca Cola.
 

Danny Carnahan, originally a classically-trained cellist, helped pave the way for the California Celtic explosion of the early ‘80s with the ground-breaking Celtic duo Caswell Carnahan. With Chris Caswell and Robin Petrie, he toured for over 15 years, building a following from Europe to New Zealand, recording 7 albums, and earning two NAIRD "Indie" awards and a Grammy nomination. Since 2000 Danny has been performing and recording with the acoustic septet Wake the Dead, billed as "the world's only Celtic all-star Grateful Dead jam band." Danny is equally at home on cello, violin, octave mandolin and guitar. His first musical murder mystery, "A Jig Before Dying", was published in February and is available (along with 7 CD titles).

Charlie Hancock plays piano and accordion for contra, swing, English and Scottish country dancing. He has played for BACDS dances, camps, and balls for more than 15 years, with occasional gigs further afield, including Pinewoods American English week and the Portland (OR) English ball. He is also a member of Bay Area folk ensemble Euphonia, and has recorded with Sylvia Herold, Holly Tannen, Shira Kammen, Cathie Whitesides, and Ray Bierl.

Shira Kammen has delighted in playing for English Dance events for many years, including at least 5 BACDS English Weeks, English/American dance camps at Buffalo Gap and Pinewoods, several fall dance weekends at Monte Toyon, as well as a plethora of Playford and Fall Balls. She's been a mainstay of many California Revels shows, performed with the Oregon, SF, and California Shakespeare companies, and has worked with many prominent early music ensembles, performing and teaching around the US and farther afield. Shira has a degree in music from UC Berkeley and is at home in many musical genres, including English, Breton, Medieval & Renaissance. She has played on several television and movie soundtracks including 'The Nativity Story'.

Jim Oakden has gone through a succession of musical stages, from early music to traditional. Jim has been a staff musician at many West Coast camps including Fall Weekend, both by himself and as part of The Guppies, and is currently active as a musician for English country dances, contras, Irish and Cape Breton sessions and dances from Brittany. Jim is a board member of the Traditional Dancers of Santa Cruz, led the band for the 2000 Playford Ball, and programmed the 2001 and 2002 BACDS Fall Weekends.

Lise Dyckman brings a combination of scholastic daring-do and a delightful enjoyment of dance to her teaching.  A well-known caller on both coasts and steeped in several country dance traditions, Lise has previously been artistic director for BACDS' Fall Ball, Playford Ball, and Fall Weekend camp.
 

Bill Jensen has been enjoying English Country dancing since 1984, and has played piano for dances since 1997. He plays frequently at dances throughout the Bay Area. Bill particularly enjoys working closely with callers to provide musical backup for teaching dances.

Bill often plays with Stan and Susan Kramer. When they play as a trio, they are known as “The Glory of the West”—the name of an English dance from the first Playford edition.

Stan and Susan Kramer, sometimes called the dynamic duo of English Country Dance music, are products of that wonderful evolution - dancers turned musicians.  Stan has been playing since 1965, uplifting a 2nd and 3rd generation of dancers, for morris, and English dance, but strangely won't admit to contras.  He plays fiddle, recorder, string bass, and mentored with Pat Shaw, Phllippe Merrill and Marshall Baron.  Susan is also firmly grounded in the folk traditions, both from Berea College and as a child dancer, and who Stan says "needs no introduction because her music speaks for itself."

Patti Cobb has loved singing all her life. She is a member of the acoustic rock vocal trio Tonal Recall, and the eclectic original trio The Original Diamonds, as well as the Scottish & English dance band The Humuhumunukunukuapua'a & Strathspey Society Band. She has has sung with the UC Berkeley Collegium Musicum, the SF Chamber Singers and at the Renaissance and Dickens Faires.  Her love of dance music has allowed Patti to play with stellar fiddlers such as Alasdair Fraser, Darrol Anger and John Taylor. She has been featured on CDs by Ted Czuk, Michael John and Stony Point.