English Dance Musicians Master Class

August 17-23, 2026 // Schwenksville, PA

Making Dance Magic!

During Cascade of Music & Dance at Kweebec with Dave Wiesler!

Program Description

Musicians playing in a circle. Photo by Elvie Miller.

How do you as an English country dance musician start with dots on a page and transform them into a magical dance experience? Playing for such a dance is indescribably joyful, but it requires a great deal of attention—not only to the music, but to the caller, to the dancers, and to the other musicians in your ensemble. In this course we’ll learn how to:

Pay better attention
Make the music fit the dance better
Glean information from the floor and the caller
Support the teaching and walk-throughs
Find an appropriate tempo and feel for a dance
Build a better connection within our ensemble
Communicate emotion and craft a musical arc for a dance

Course Details and Participation Requirements

Dave Wiesler with a purple lantern on his head. Photo by Ben Schreiber.

There is a limit of 12 participants for this course.

This course is designed for intermediate (and adventurous) to advanced musicians. You must:

Have at least two years of experience playing folk music for performance or dance and at least one year of regular experience playing for ECD
Be solid on your instrument, including knowing scales and arpeggios, reading melody lines, understanding chords, keeping tempos steady, etc.
Be willing and able to familiarize yourself with 25 ECD tunes for this course, learning 12 of them well enough that you can play them from memory (ideally) or while just glancing occasionally at them. The instructor will send the tune list well in advance.
Be willing to hit the dance floor (if physically able), so that you can provide solid feedback for the other musicians in the course.
Be willing to try hard things and multi-task with humor and grace.

All applicants must complete a pre-admission questionnaire and submit audio files to the instructor to be considered. The course instructor and CDSS will review responses and select attendees.

Pre-Camp Work

Accepted attendees will be invited to meet with Dave online before camp to discuss how the course will integrate with the callers intensive and general camp program.

At-Camp Work

We will meet three times each day. The first session will be devoted to master classes of small ensembles. Those ensembles will play again for the second session, but this time in the context of a real dance class, as we combine with the Advanced English Dance Leaders Course. In the third session, we will provide feedback and debriefing on the dance class, play games to build attention and musicianship, and address more advanced topics, like how to merge lyricism with clear rhythmic pulse or how to think in longer time frames to keep the music from feeling disjointed.

Course Leader

Dave Wiesler

Registration and Fees

If you apply by March 8, you’ll be notified about your acceptance status around March 10. Applications received after March 8 will be reviewed on a rolling basis. If you are accepted to the course, you will also be accepted to its host session. The fee below covers both the course and the host session.

If the course is oversubscribed on March 8, there will be a lottery for admission, with some preference given to CDSS Members and applicants supported by their local community through priority admission nominations and/or matching scholarships. A CDSS Affiliate can vouch for a participant by nominating them for priority admission and/or offering funds for a matching scholarship. This kind of community support lets us know that the applicant would benefit the local community by attending the course! Matching scholarship funds are reserved for those with financial need.

Camp fees cover all accommodation, meals from dinner on the arrival day to breakfast on the departure day, and all of the various dance, music, and song events in the program.

This year, all of our weeks have sliding scale pricing for adults to help make camp financially accessible to more people. The fee you choose will not affect your chance of getting into camp.

How it works:

The standard camper fee covers program staff pay and travel costs, facility fees, and all of the other costs associated with running this camp week.
The higher price options allow you to add an additional amount to your registration fee to help make camp more accessible to more people. Thanks for supporting this community!
If the standard camper fee doesn’t work for you, no worries! Feel free to choose one of the lower price options.
If the lower price tiers still leave camp out of reach for you, we encourage you to apply for a scholarship and/or work exchange. See our Scholarships page for more details