Cumberland Dance Week Staff

We are working throughout the year to bring Cumberland Dance Week the best-known experts in their fields.

Planning, Registration, and Support Staff: Neal & Pat Rhodes, Lynn & Eric Schreiber, Fred Wade, Ralph & Daphne Reiley, Darrell Webb and Karen Parker

Alice White Alice teaches primary grades in Berea, KY. She grew up at the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County, Kentucky, where her father Raymond K. McLain was director. She performed traditional Appalachian, bluegrass and gospel music with her family, the McLain Family Band. The McLain Family Band had an extensive local, national and international performing career during the years 1968-1988. She plays bass in the Berea Castoffs with her husband, Al White.

Al White teaches Appalachian music for string instruments at Berea College and is best known for his mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and banjo playing, teaching any and all of these when asked. Al plays fiddle in the Berea Cast-Offs dance band along with his wife, Alice White and has been an artist-in-residence for the Kentucky Arts Council in storytelling, folk music and dance. He also has been a staff member at Pinewoods, Buffalo Gap, KY Summer Dance School, and other dance weeks.

Ben Schreiber plays New England style fiddle and has a dance band called the BeatPickers, in which he also plays mandolin. The BeatPickers have played at dances throughout Illinois and Missouri, and are known for their energetic style and creative interpretation of dance tunes. Ben also play in Chicory and the Halcyon Light Orchestra. In addition, Ben plays banjo, guitar, and composes tunes.

Beth Battey has been teaching Vocal and Instrumental Music (K-8th) for the past two years at a charter school in Ann Arbor, MI. Beth has recently started a children's longsword dance team in the Ann Arbor area in hopes to spread new dance tradtions to the young. In addition to music and dance, Beth enjoys many different craft hobbies including yarn crafts and paper folding (to name just a few).

Bill Litchman began calling squares with the University of Colorado Calico and Boots exhibition team, in 1957, mentored by Gib Gilbert. He calls a variety of traditional dances (squares, contras, couple dances, English country dance). With his wife Kris he teaches dance leaders as well as dancers at folk festivals, camps, and workshops around the United States and Europe. Kris also works with children's dance programs. Bill has long served as dance archivist for the Lloyd Shaw Foundation and is currently president of that foundation. Other dance-related activities include playing clarinet with dance bands and teaching exhibition groups. Bill and Kris live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Bob Garber plays clarinet in two contra dance bands- the MetroGnomes and June Apple- and jazz with MagicRay. Bob is a fearless leader of the Baltimore Open Band and the Mason-Dixon Contradance Orchestra Extraordinaire.

Bob Dalsemer co-founded the Baltimore Folk Music Society and helped start the dance program for the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. He served as president of The Country Dance and Song Society from 1990-1996. In the early 1980's he became a regular dance instructor at The John C. Campbell Folk School and moved to southwestern North Carolina in 1991 to become Coordinator of Music and Dance Programs at The Folk School. He specializes in calling traditional American contra, square and circle dances. He's composed a number of new dances in traditional style and published two collections of traditional square dances ( Smoke On the Water and When The Work's All Done ) which, after being out of print for some time are available again from Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service. His 1982 book, West Virginia Square Dances, about old time square dancing in five W.Va. communities is also available again, free, online. He also enjoys teaching and calling English country dances. In addition to calling, He plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin and piano accordion. He's a musician for Sticks-in-the-Mud Morris and Rural Felicity Garland Dancers and a member of the Dog Branch Cats string band.

Bob Green started doing international folk dancing in 1957. He has danced with several performing groups including The Intersection Dancers and Idimo, He is currently dancing with Dance Discovery.

He has taught couple dance workshops at the Pilgrims progression, Sole Fest, Spring Breakdown and Sugar Hill Dance weekends, as well as special events in Chicago, Minneapolis and Cincinnati. He is a regular quest teacher at the St. Louis Ragtime and Vintage Dance Society.

Bob Tomlinson has been dancing with Oglebay Institute Folk Dancers since 1967 and sharing dances with others for the last 16 years at various workshops and other regional events, including Terpsichore's Holiday and Cumberland Dance Week. He was Adjunct Lecturer of Folk Dance, West Liberty State College, Conducted teacher workshops for PE and music majors. co-directed Oglebay Institute Folk Dance Camp and Cumberland Dance Week. Currently he is the Folk Dance Specialist at Oglebay Institute teaching adult and children's classes. He has developed a concise teaching style that gets people moving with a minimum of intellectual effort. Bob places emphasis on the recreational value of dance through the social interaction enjoyed while dancing with others within a community.

Brad Battey has been participating in traditional music and dance around Detroit and Ann Arbor since he was seven. His parents started him on fiddle lessons in the summer of 1984, taking him to many, many places that had live music, but some of the best was found at the dances in the area. They also found The Paint Creek Folklore Society, where he got his first "formal" introduction to playing in a dance band and began sitting in with dance bands. He began fiddling with Bruce Sagan at age 12 and is one of Bruce’s favorite fiddling partners. He can be heard on Bruce's latest CD, "With Friends." He plays New England-style contras, swing, English country, and Scandinavian music.

Brad is a member of several bands, including Dr. Grangelove, The Sharon Hollow String Band, Aunt Lu and the Oakland County All Stars, and The Olde Michigan Ruffwater String Band. He can also be heard on Ruffwater's newest CD, "Michigan Fall." He has been on staff at MDH Fall Camp and Cumberland Dance Week, where he is co-music director. Brad is the President of the Ann Arbor Council for Traditional Music and Dance (AACTMAD) as well as a board member of Michigan Dance Heritage, Inc. (MDH).

Chris Bischoff Since 1985, Chris has been involved with all types of American, English, and Scottish folk dance, with a primary focus on clogging, contras, morris and squares. He has called at dances, weekends and weeks throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Denmark, and Norway. He learned to play banjo with Greg Jowasis, Phil Jamison, and Lee Sexton while working as a professional storyteller at Blackacre Nature Preserve. Since 1986, he has performed as a free-lance storyteller/banjo-picker. His charm and wit give his dances a distinctive flair.

Diane Silver has been dancing and teaching for over ten years. She calls contras and squares, and other community dance formations at weekly dances, workshops, dance weekends, camps, schools, family dances, you name it. She aims for high energy, fun presence; clear and efficient walk-throughs; interesting dances without a lot of standing around; a nice varied program.

She founded and continues to manage the Asheville Area Family Dance. This dance, aimed at families with children, has grown since its inception three years ago, entirely by word-of-mouth from the families who come and love our dance.

George Paul George Paul, on piano and accordion, has traveled a long musical road-from classical training to playing the jazz clubs of California, from performing in blues and country bands in the Pacific Northwest to Irish sessions and contradances in Anchorage, Alaska. Noted for his driving, bluesy groove and innovative compositions, George has quickly gained popularity in the lower forty-eight as a master of "contra funk." George is a prolific composer of tunes in many styles. While he occasionally plays straight dance piano, he introduces big band, pop, rock, salsa, Wagnerian opera, soap opera, and anything else that comes into his head in an intoxicating melange of dance music that's actually interesting to listen to as well.

Jubal Creech became enamored by percussion and storytelling at an early age. Traveling in West Africa and Haiti, Jubal studied traditional rhythms, dances, and the rich oral traditions of these cultures. Jubal has also traveled to China, Europe and all over the United States. Jubal has studied under many master drummers and storytellers including Babatunde Olatunji, Abou Silla, Mohamed Decosta, Ali Camera, Michael Spiro, Heather Forest, Brother Blue and Donald Davis. Along with performing and recording, Jubal dedicates a lot of his time to educational programs in public schools. Over the past eight years, Jubal has become more and more involved in the Contra Dance world, both as a dancer and as a percussionist! He has had the pleasure to play with some of the nations finest players of the genre and is excited about the future of this culture. Jubal is also a licensed massage therapist and lives in Raleigh, NC with his dog Mbira and his cat Ima.

Kappy Laning has been dancing rapper since 1992, first with Frayed Knot in Charlottesville VA and now with Charm City in Baltimore MD. She has taught rapper at several summer and winter dance camps in Florida, Maryland and West Virginia. While she utilizes the structure of traditional rapper dances from England in her teaching, she also enjoys working with each group to create their own unique dance and performance. She has been a camp director at CDSS family week for many years and also plays fiddle.

Kris Litchman enjoys string figures, silly games, lively dances, funny songs, and playing with kids -- especially at dance camps. She teaches old-time and traditional dancing with her husband Bill and is the editor of Let’s Dance!, the Lloyd Shaw Foundation’s elementary school dance program.

Laura Light has been playing for dances, festivals and various and sundry celebratory occasions for thirty years. A true American hybrid, she was born in the heartlands, spent the seventies in folk and bluegrass clubs in the San Francisco Bay area, homesteaded and played hoedowns and raised babies in southeastern Ohio, and currently hits the national contra dance circuit and old time festivals of the southeast. She spent several years working at the Augusta Heritage Arts workshops, sitting at the feet of Dewey Balfa, Liz Caroll, Buddy MacMaster, Howard Armstrong, Johnny Gimbel, Richard Forest, and the like. A new CD with the Avant Gardeners, Tulip Bandits, has recently been released.

Laura is currently touring and performing with her husband, pianist George Paul, as well as with the Avant Gardeners. Her repetoire includes southern old time, New England, Scandanavian, Cape Breton, Quebecois, Irish and swing tunes and she loves to sing as well as fiddle for dancers all around the country. Her seemingly inexhaustible enthusiasm for playing, especially for dancers, has kept her on the road as a popular dance fiddler on both coasts.

Martha Edwards plays New England style fiddle for contra dances. She also plays English Country Dance music and social dances of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- or any other dance music you put in front of her. "If no one is dancing, why bother?" she says, when asked to play concerts. She plays in Chicory, Stringdancer, the Tu'Penny Uprights, Summer Lightening, the Dixie Shiksas, and the Halcyon Light Orchestra. Her style is energetic and "beautiful" though she would prefer it if people thought her playing was "gritty".

Michael Shapiro plays guitar in Chicory and other bands, and darn well, too.

Nancy Kane holds degrees in dance and dance education from New York University (Ph.D, Teaching Fellow), the Laban Centre for Movement & Dance in London (M.A.), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (B.F.A., Phi Beta Kappa).

Dance Teacher magazine calls Nancy Kane a "leader and trendsetter" in dance education. She has earned international recognition as a versatile dancer, teacher, choreographer, lecturer, and director, and her writings have been published in Dancer, Impulse, Dance Teacher, and The American Dance Circle. Her exciting and original choreography has been performed in New York, Avignon (France), London, and across the United States, and she has been recognized by Dance Magazine for her innovative work, The Swingin' Nutcracker.

Her ability to teach a wide variety of dance techniques has made her a valued faculty member at colleges, universities, and private studios. In addition to ballet, character ballet, pointe, modern/contemporary, jazz, theatre dance, and tap, she also teaches children's creative dance, folk dance (mostly Irish), ballroom/social dance, Appalachian clogging, improvisation, choreography, and tumbling. Her classes are informed and supported by her extensive studies in dance history, education, aesthetics and criticism, and arts administration.

Nancy's teaching style reflects British ballerina Margot Fonteyn's belief that "We should take our art seriously, but we should not take ourselves seriously," meaning that studio work must be done to the very best of each student's ability, but creating stress in the classroom by use of force or harsh criticism helps no one and can actually adversely affect class progress. Different students need different touches of encouragement, humor, prodding, and explanation to understand concepts, but all must addressed in a spirit of mutual respect.

Sam Droege is a biologist who has worked at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland for many years. His first love and area of expertise was birds, then salamanders and frogs and now native bees. Going with Sam on a nature walk is a real treat! He is also a chainsaw, timberframe, log cabin, ax sort of wood craftsman, and has led the very popular and exciting woodworking classes at Terpsicore's Holiday. He is a bones and foot rhythm player as well.

Susan Taylor calls all kinds of dancing to all kinds of people all around the country. Susan's obvious love of the music and the dance, and the folks who come to enjoy both, translates directly. She travels within and outside her home base of Baltimore-Washington to call contras, squares and English country dance. A member of the Hot Square Babes, and one of the Two Hot Mamas, Susan brings a gracious sense of ease and humor to the serious business of boogying down. Susan teaches movement to high school actors at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and music and movement to children 0-5 in a family setting with Music Together. She's also the moderately sane mother of a teen-aged daughter.