Staff

Give yourself up . . . to these wonderful teachers and musicians!

Our Dancing Master:

Robert Moir

One of Britain's best known English dance teachers, Robert Moir is noted for his clear, precise teaching and his unfailing graciousness. Robert has taught at the Christmas Course in Holland, at dance events in Belgium, Portugal, and Spain, and at Mendocino and Pinewoods English Dance Weeks. His wide repertoire features both modern compositions and historical reconstructions, many of them little or unknown in the U.S. today.

Musicians:

Jon Berger

Jon Berger (fiddle) has played music for morris, English country, and contra dances since 1976. A former musician for Berkeley Morris, he now plays for Apple Tree Morris in Sebastopol, and in Flashpoint, a Santa Rosa-based contra dance band. He is well-known for his powerful music, and, while playing for morris, his ability to maintain a connection between the music, the dancers and the dance (not to mention his sense of humor, and grand singing voice). He is a regular musician at BayArea and North Bay English country dances as well as dance weekends and dance weeks on both coasts.

Shira Kammen

Shira earned her degree in music from UC Berkeley and studied vielle with Margriet Tindemans. A member for many years of Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, she has played in numerous other groups and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips. Shira has performed and taught all over the world, and in addition to playing exquisite English country dance music, currently performs with the medieval ensemble Fortune's Wheel; a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea; and Trouz Bras, which specializes in dance music of Celtic Brittany. The strangest place Shira has played in is the elephant pit of the Jerusalem Zoo.

Rebecca King

Rebecca King is a versatile dance pianist whose strong classical training and love of jazz shows in her rhythmic and lyric piano accompaniments. She plays ECD and contra in the Bay Area, mainly with the bands Flashpoint and Luceo. She has been featured on the staff of several West Coast dance camps and will be playing for both Pinewoods English Week and Mendocino English Week this summer. Rebecca’s great-grandfather, living in a small pioneer town in the west, moved his log cabin from his farm into town to be closer to play the fiddle for the town dances. Playing for community dances runs deep in Rebecca’s soul.

Elizabeth Zekley

Elizabeth Zekley has played the piano since the age of five and is accomplished in many genres of music and on a variety of instruments. She received her formal music training at the University of California at Santa Cruz and has been involved in their ethnic music studies program. She performs on hammered dulcimer, Irish concertina, flute, bodhran, pennywhistle, and keyboards. She plays regularly with Mendocino's ECD band Take a Dance and with Mickie and Corwin Zekley in the Zekley Family Band. Besides playing music, she teaches English Country Dance, beginning Scottish Country Dance and Irish Ceilidh Dance, and is a director of Lark Camp.

Last modified 2/21/10 by MRB webmaster