Anne Bingham Goess enjoys wearing many hats (and wreaths!). Trained as a classical violinist, she immersed herself in choral singing and light opera for many years, and then fell in love with Irish fiddle in the 90s. These days she plays regularly for Irish, English Country and Contra dancing in the Bay Area, and wields the violin and viola with the band Erica & Friends. She has also performed since 2010 with the Christmas/Midwinter Revels, and served as music director for the 2022 Butterfly Lovers of Gold Mountain production. Last summer she reprised her role of Manuelita (after 30 years) in Carmen with Festival Opera (and has scars on the knees to show for it!)
Tag: 2023
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Anne Bingham Goess
programmer, fiddler
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Andy Wilson
stilting, family dance
Andy Wilson has spent many years supporting family dance in the Santa Cruz area. At Family Week, he is patient and competent and will help you guide your child on those first very tall steps. He excels in making other people better—he’s often run our family camp sound board. Soon your child will be proudly walking tall!
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Courtney Tolhurst
preschool
Courtney Tolhurst works in a Waldorf School in Jamestown, California. She was recently accepted into Cal Poly Humboldt as an Upper-Division Transfer student to obtain a Multi Subject Teaching Credential. She adores working with kids of all ages, and is particularly crafty. She loves to dance, sing, and spend as much time as possible in nature! 2024 will be her third year attending camp and she couldn’t be more excited!
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Craig Johnson
piano, accordion
Craig Johnson has been to almost every Family Week, and has also played piano and accordion for dancers since 1982. He plays for community and Celtic dance at SF’s Dickens Fair, performs with the Dogwatch Nautical Band, and is a regular musician for San Francisco’s Cotswold and longsword teams, Goat Hill and Ring of Cold Steel.
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David James
mandolin, fiddle, guitar
David James has spent time in western swing bands, symphony orchestras, pop/rock bands, and ECD/contra dance bands. He’s the musician for Wild Wood Morris (Border) and Rising Phoenix Morris (Cotswold), and a member of the ECD/contra dance band Whirled Peas. David has spent the last 20+ years as a kindergarten through 6th grade classroom music teacher in southern California public schools.
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Jeff Spero
piano
Jeffrey Spero has been playing piano and singing since he was five years old. At a young age he discovered an affinity for popular music and developed his style emulating musicians like James Taylor, Elton John, and Bruce Hornsby. In his 30s, he brought his rhythmic style to American and Celtic folk and dance music and now travels around the country playing dances, concerts, and festivals with bands such as Syncopaths and Rhythm Raptors. In addition to editing and music, Jeffrey is a contradance caller and choreographer whose dances have been enjoyed all across this country and overseas.
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Kelly Graham
Morris dance, theater
Kelly Graham is thrilled to be returning to Family Week this year. After a long hiatus, which ended last year, she is so excited to see all her friends old and new! She teaches Morris Dance and Drama Improv. Be sure to bring your bells and hankies!!
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Lorraine Kostka
crafts
Lorraine Kostka has been leading crafts with children for many years at summer camps and public schools. Her four kids have grown up attending family camp each year and as teens they still enjoy camp. Lorraine will share her experience and love of tie dye and other crafts to allow campers a place to create.
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M’Gilvry Allen
fiddle, electronic music
M’Gilvry Allen is a musician and producer from Sebastopol, California. He tours as a fiddle player and utility hitter in several indie projects, while his solo music blends folk instruments, modern electronic production, and multilayered vocal harmonies into a kaleidoscope of familiar sounds. In 2019, M’Gilvry and some friends built an earth plaster music studio in a remote part of Oregon, where he produced his debut album, In My Garden. M’Gilvry’s work can be found at his website, mgilvryallen.com, on patreon at patreon.com/mgilvryallen, and on all major platforms as @mgilvryallen.
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Nick Cuccia
sound engineer
Nick Cuccia has been bringing his sound expertise to Family Week since 2015. Nick strives to enhance the dancing experience by providing sound that is both clear and enjoyable. Nick has been sound engineer for BACDS’s Family Week, English Week, Fall Frolick/Fall Weekend, Playford Ball, and Fall Ball, as well as NBCDS’s Mad Robin Ball. Nick also leads and teaches contra, English and barn dances throughout northern and central California.
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Rhonda Cayford
rapper sword dance
Rhonda Cayford has been an avid contradancer for over 40 years, starting in Boston in 1978 and having the good fortune to move to San Francisco in 1980, just as the dance scene was taking off here. She discovered rapper at BACDS English Week in 1986 and it has been her passion ever since. She is the founder of a womens’ rapper team called Twisted Sisters, and was a long-time member of Swords of Gridlock. She has taught Rapper, Longsword, Cotswold, and Northwest Morris at camp. In 2022 and 2023, she held the role of camp programmer.
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sTåń Fowler
safety, ropes course
sTåń Fowler “Dance Ranger” is our camp safety officer and also supervises the ropes course. He’s a strong advocate of prevention, and a hitch in the US Coast Guard plus thirty years with the National Park Service has given him practice dealing with everything from bandaid-sized boo-boos to lifesaving emergencies. Having been on the staff of over 150 music, dance, and family weeks and weekends, and also attended somewhere north of 6,000 dances, he is not surprised anymore by anything that happens at camp. The ropes course fits in well with his history of tree, rock, and ice climbing over the years and running the rigging of the Pride of Baltimore II. Ropes and knots are his friends.
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Bethany Ewers
storytelling, preschool
Bethany Ewers (storyteller, preschool) is a birth doula, herbalist, and Waldorf style educator. She currently helps run a Waldorf based homeschool co-op in Huntington Beach with children from 3-8 years old and manages her small urban homestead of chickens, bees, herbs, and angora rabbits. When she isn’t telling stories and finger plays with her children she can be found running wild and spinning yarn, potting clay, and other crafty madness.
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David Brown
guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle
David Brown (guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle) is a versatile instrumentalist, playing banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. He’s been at the heart of the Bay Area old-time music community for over 30 years, and also has a deep love for Quebecois, English country dance (Playford Clawhammer, anyone?), string ragtime, and many other types of music. David is in the band “Uncle Dave” with Kathrine Gardner and Dave Courchaine.
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Emily Janssen
crafts
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Erik Hoffman
calling, contra, fiddle
Erik Hoffman started calling in 1984, became the house caller in San Luis Obispo and a core caller in Santa Barbara in 1986. He has called from coast to coast, as well as in England, Denmark, France, and Italy. He is known for his teaching skills, contra and square dance choreographies, and musical compositions. Erik makes his living by teaching violin, guitar, mandolin, and more, as well as calling the public and private dance events.
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Julie James
morris, MC
Julie James was an international folk dancer in her youth. She later found English country dance, then morris, and never looked back. In 2000 Julie formed Wild Wood Border Morris, where she focuses on teaching complex, fun dances with an emphasis on both precision and exuberance.
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Kalia Kliban
English, mischief
Kalia Kliban (CA) has been part of the Bay Area dance community since the mid-80s, performing and teaching morris, longsword, American clog, English clog, contra, and English country dance. Among her other useful talents are the making of excellent pipe-cleaner sculptures and the juggling of a wide variety of supermarket produce. Her clear and humorous teaching style has gotten feet tapping at camps and gatherings in California and beyond, and she’s been part of the Family Week community since 1996.
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Kelsey Hartman
contra, family dance
Kelsey Hartman has been calling contra and family dance since her debut at the San Francisco contra in 2013. She can be found calling dances all around the Bay Area and beyond. She is also a member of Twisted Sisters Rapper Sword Team. To her, the world of folk music and dance seems like home! She holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Theater and spends her year teaching middle schoolers medieval world history and English. For the last two years her summer break has taken her to the East Coast to tour as a caller.
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Nicolas Babineau
fiddle, guitar
Nicolas Babineau accompanied the French Canadian dancing in 2023.
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Sharon Green
English
Sharon Green has been calling and choreographing English country dances since 1993. Since the pandemic, her current major dance activity has been co-leading (with Kalia Kliban) the Oddly Even Sundays English dance on Zoom, as well as calling for BACDS’s virtual Fall Frolick, Hey Days, and Family Week. She is a regular attendee and occasional staff member of in-person Family Week with grandson Santi.
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Yaëlle Azoulay
French Canadian dance
Yaëlle Azoulay (French Canadian dance) is a professional dancer/choreographer specializing in Quebecois traditional dancing and percussive dance (jig). Through a musical approach, she’s been actively developing stepdancing teaching methods for all ages and levels. She has also been calling social dances for 20 years, both for large events and traditional dance nights. Her human approach, her passion for dance, and her deep regard for initiatives that involve social action are but a few of the many strengths that have given her recognition as one of the best in her field on the Quebec scene.