Ben Schreiber, a fiddler and tune writer rooted in the contra dance scene, brings a diverse musical palette influenced by his Midwest upbringing and years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Having started with the Suzuki method at an early age, Ben’s musical journey has been enriched through exploration of folk music. While best known for his contributions to contra dance bands like Uncle Farmer, the Dam Beavers, Offbeats, and Potent Brew, he also performs with the newly-established chamber-folk trio,
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Following many delightful years of leading the Teachers Course at CDSS’s Family Week at Ogontz, Jane Miller returns to her other great joy, teaching crafts. Before joining the faculty at Antioch New England Graduate School in the 1990s, she founded and taught at Price Farm School, an independent elementary school in New Hampshire. For many summers, she taught children’s classes at CDSS’s Family Week at Pinewoods; she is thrilled to return, with two generations of family,
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Elvie Miller grew up immersed in the New England music and dance community and attended Family Week at Pinewoods many times as a camper. A recipient of the Watson Fellowship in 2005, she studied traditional dance music in northern Europe, and subsequently moved to music-rich County Clare, Ireland, where she now lives with her husband, fiddler Denis Liddy, and their eight-year old twin daughters. She enjoys teaching, playing music, and exploring children’s literature.
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Wendy Graham is a self-described “dance maniac.” Her passion for music, song and dance caught fire in 1991 on a youth dance tour in Denmark. Today, Wendy leads English, American, and couples dances in Durango, CO, across the country, and abroad — as far away as Alaska, England and Denmark. She proudly served on the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) board and is currently a Lifetime Contribution Award committee member.
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Gaye Fifer has been calling at dance weekends/weeks for many years. Her pleasant style and graceful teaching put dancers at ease and set the stage for a great dance experience. She now lives in Pittsburgh, PA. and travels whenever there is a safe opportunity to do so. Gaye is currently President of CDSS and has a passionate interest in supporting dance community leaders and organizers.
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Meg Dedolph spent her teenage years working as a Girl Scout camp counselor, completely unaware that it was a job that grownups could have too. Since leading kids in Baby Shark (before it was cool), she found folk and traditional music. Now she plays guitar and drums for the Cosmic Otters and is a Chicago-area dance caller, appearing at regular contra dances and once-in-a-while church harvest festivals. She and her family run an all-ages dance series in the Chicago suburbs,
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Dance, Music, & Song Camps