A cavalcade of callers and musicians, calling will be Larks and Robins. The year was 1980 when Kirston Koths (1948–2024) moved to the Bay Area. A new caller from Boston, he started a 2nd Friday contradance in Berkeley. Contradance was new to the area—the only regular dance was in Palo Alto. BACDS did not yet exist, and when it formed Kirston became member #2. Kirston organized, managed, and called his Berkeley dance for 25 years, eventually asking BACDS to take it on. By then contradancing was flourishing in the Bay Area, with dances in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Mill Valley, Santa Cruz, and many nearby cities. Contradancing took hold in the Bay Area, as in much of the country, due to the efforts of the early organizers, and Kirston was one of them. Kirston wrote at least a dozen dances. “Nantucket Sleigh Ride,” with its distinctive dip-and-dive figure, was wildly popular in the ’70s in New England. His most memorable West Coast dance, and the namesake of tonight, is “Triskaidekaphobia”. In appreciation and in celebration of his contribution to this community we present this special evening.

Hey Days (BACDS English Dance and Music Week) June 15-22 – a residential camp in the Santa Cruz mountains with English Country Dance, longsword, border morris, singing, a music track, storytelling, and more. Staff includes Joanna Reiner-Wilkinson, Andrew Swaine, Rachel Pusey, Daisy Black, Jan Elliot, Shira Kammen, Jim Oakden, Lisa Scott, Chip Prince, Michelle Masek, Rebecca King, McKinley James, Sound engineers Christopher Jacoby and Alicia Cover. Advance registration required; registration opens January 2; postmark lottery deadline February 1. To get periodic announcements about Hey Days click here