Here’s the wonderful Guest Artists who will be joining us for our in-person July 2024 Camp.

Aaron started dancing before he was born! His parents met at Israeli folk dancing in Los Angeles, and his childhood is filled with dance memories — from participating in his first dance camp at the age of two months, to acting as his father's "remote control" when he taught, to performing in Saturday night talent shows at the Camp Alonim for Jewish youth that takes place every summer just north of Los Angeles, California.

In his first year at UC Berkeley, Aaron became one of the instructors and the curriculum developer for Jewish Studies 98: The Israeli Dance DeCal. In January 2009, Aaron joined the teaching and music DJ rotation at Cafe Simcha, a weekly Israeli dance session held near Berkeley. He also sporadically substitutes for Loui Tucker and Karina Lambert at the larger South Bay Israeli dance sessions.

In October 2012, Aaron founded his own dance session, Nirkoda! ("Let's dance!"). After the first 10 months in a small studio on the Stanford University campus, the evening dance party was popular enough to require moving to a larger venue, Temple Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, California. Aaron’s first appearance as a staff member at a dance camp was Camp Rikud in 2016. A few months later, Aaron hosted a workshop, Nirkoda Mi'Nona, featuring Nona Malki, an Israeli dance choreographer and teacher from Vancouver. His next venture, Nirkoda Ba'Kerem, is a weekend-long Israeli dance camp in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, that will include wine-tasting and a guest choreographer, Yaron Malichi, flying in from Israel.

A native of Turkey, Ahmet is an accomplished choreographer, dance teacher and performer as well as a researcher of Anatolian culture. He is currently the artistic director of the Boston based Collage Dance Ensemble, which allows him to further his goal of making folk dance and music accessible to a wider audience.

He is the winner of Crash Art's " Dance Straight Up! 2004 and 2006", " Ten's the limit 2005" and Boston Dance Umbrella's " Boston Moves 2001" awards for choreography. His choreography set for Budlet dance company won the Gold medal at "Hong Kong open Dance Competition 2004". He was also recently presented with the 2002 Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts & Humanities by ATAA (the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. His company Collage has won the fifth place at the world dance competition in year 2003.

Since arriving in North America in 1985, he has taught many workshops and camps throughout the United States as well as Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Holland, England, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Norway, Italy, Spain and Australia. He has set innumerable suites of dances for the stage working with dance organizations around the world.

Some of the notable performing ensembles with whom he has worked include AMAN of Los Angeles, BYU dancers of Provo, BUDLET of Hong Kong, LES SORTILEGES of Montreal, and VINOK of Edmonton. In his native Turkey, he choreographed for HOYTUR and TURHOY of Ankara, ANADOLU UNIVERSITESI of Eskisehir. In 1991 Ahmet joined the Artistic Staff of AMAN as resident choreographer.

From 1974 to 1985, he taught in several excellent ensembles in Ankara, Istanbul, Eskisehir and Bursa. For nearly five years prior to his departure for north America in 1985, Ahmet also served as Director of Dances for HOY-TUR, long considered Turkey's leading folkdance association. Since the age of eight he has danced with numerous school ensembles and private associations, many of which won outstanding awards in city-wide and National-International competitions. Between 1973 and 2003 he participated in International dance festivals and competitions throughout western and eastern Europe. In edition, him and his ensembles appeared in more than 60 programs broadcast nationally in countries such as Turkey, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Brazil and Germany.

His college major was music, specializing in voice. Just as his love of folksongs guided him toward academic study of music, Ahmet's fascination with dance led him to conduct scholarly research into the historical, social and cultural background of the costumes and spoon dances from Turkey's Mediterranean coast. His efforts resulted in an exhaustive, 400 page study for which he was awarded First Place in the 1985 national competition in research on the folkdances of Turkey by the Turkish ministry of Youth, Sports, and Education. In 1997 Ahmet completed a second degree in Fine Arts.

He is an adjudicator at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod held yearly in Wales.

He is currently the Artistic Director of Collage Dance Ensemble and served as an International Art Director of "Outside the Box" International Arts Festival in 2015, takes place in Boston.

Robert began Scottish country and highland dancing in California in 1973 and moved to the Boston Area in 1979. He has performed highland dancing with many groups and in many venues (including a tour of Scotland with the Strathspey and Reel Society of New Hampshire in 1996), and has directed concerts with featured performers such as Jean Redpath and Alasdair Fraser. Between 1999 and 2006 Robert danced with Jen Schoonover in Bonnie Rideout's national touring show, A Scottish Christmas. His tartan is Dress Ancient Campbell of Argylle.

Robert resides in Arlington, MA, with his spouse Barbara, an accomplished fiddler; see their joint website, www.mcowen.net. When he's not performing with HDB, Robert can be found at Northeastern University, where he is a faculty member in the Mathematics Department.

Tony

Parkes

💖 Squares and Contra Dances

Tony Parkes (Billerica, MA) has been calling American folk dances since 1964. He specializes in old and new contra dances, traditional and contemporary New England squares, and squares from the 1950s (arguably the Golden Age of recreational square dancing). He has led workshops in these dance forms at dance camps and folk festivals in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

In addition, Tony has led workshops on the many and varied aspects of teaching and calling squares and contras. He is the author of Contra Dance Calling: A Basic Text and has made many dance recordings as caller and pianist.

Square dance history has long been one of Tony’s passionate interests. His large personal library has enabled him to rediscover long-forgotten dances and to develop an appreciation for the breadth and depth of American dance traditions.

Liina Teose, , was born in Portland, Oregon. At two years of age, she made her debut as a folk dancer in an Estonian children’s folk dance troupe led by her mother. In 1985, she took over leading Tulehoidjad and has been its director for the past 31 years. During Teose’s tenure, Tulehoidjad has continued performing at the biennial West Coast Estonian Days (1986-2015); in 1995 and 2003, she was the producer of the Folk Festival program for the event.

Aloha! Hawai’ian in ancestry but raised in Orem, Utah, Kau’i Tuia has performed Polynesian dance from a very young age. Her parents felt it important to carry on their legacy by making sure their children would never forget the importance of their heritage and history through dance. Polynesian dance has taken Kau’i all over the Western United States and Hawai’i. While in Hawai’i, she both performed and taught dance at the Polynesian Cultural Center. She has been teaching students of different skill levels a variety of Polynesian island dance forms at Brigham Young University since 1999. Her classes are always full.

HERE’S KAU’I TEACHING ONE OF HER CLASSES (FACEBOOK LOGIN REQUIRED)

Since his twelve year career as a leading performer with the Croatian National Folk Ensemble, LADO, Željko Jergan has catapulted through the folklore and dance community as a driving force. He has restored details and authenticity to traditional dances, and developed new choreographies from regions of Croatia that had hardly been touched. There have been over 500 original choreographies to his credit, which have been set for nearly 100 performing ensembles. He has collaborated with some of the foremost composers and musicians in the Croatian folklore world.

His popularity in the recreational folk dance community has extended to several countries, including the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan & Taiwan. His attention to style and detail keeps him in high demand. In addition to this, he has single-handedly raised the artistic and presentation level for children’s adult amateur, semi-, and professional ensembles throughout these same countries.

Across Canada, he has made a significant contribution to the Croatian folklore community, where he has researched and produced many original choreographies, which are ultimately presented at Croatian Folklore Festivals. In addition, he serves as Artistic Director for several ensembles throughout the country.

In the States, he has worked with numerous collegiate and amateur folk ensembles from coast to coast. He has also developed children’s groups, providing these students with the soundest of foundations to move to higher levels; such as the collegiate TAMBURITZANS of Duquesne University, KUMOVI of Pittsburgh and Folklore Ensemble LJELJO, also of Pittsburgh.

Željko has been recognized many times for his on-going work. He has also received fellowship grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Željko also was bestowed the prestigious honor to serve as the Guest Conductor for the 2009 CFU Junior Tamburitza Festival in Chicago, Illinois. He continually strives to elevate the level of authenticity and presentation for all the ensembles with which he is affiliated, while continually showcasing the Croatian and other cultures at its highest possible level.

SEE WWW.ZELJKOJERGAN.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.

AN ARTICLE ABOUT ŽELJKO’ WORK IN PRESERVING CROATIAN CULTURE.

HERE’S ŽELJKO DANCING AND CALLING SVIRAČKO KOLO.

…and our amazing band, long term friends and collaborators, playing for the first time at Stockton.

Tom, Ralph, and Brian have been playing international dance music together for more than twenty years. In addition to their numerous independent musical activities in the Boston area, they have played for dance events across the US and Canada as part of the Pinewoods Band.

Tom Pixton

💖 Band Leader, accordion, vocals, and keyboards

Tom is one of Boston’s most active International, Balkan, and Scottish folk dance musicians. He has worked with most of today's most accomplished dance teachers and musicians as accordionist, pianist, band leader, music arranger, and CD producer. As a soloist or with the Pinewoods Band, he has provided dance music for dance camps, workshops, and special events in the US, Canada, and Japan. He has provided music leadership for the Boston Branch of the Royal Scottish Dance Society, Cambridge Revels, and the Folk Arts Center of New England.

Ralph Iverson

💖 Violin, gadulka, tambura, and kaval

Ralph started playing for international folk dancing in 1985. He has been a member of many folk dance groups including Mandala Folk Dance Ensemble (orchestra director), Cambridge Folk Orchestra, Pinewoods Band, Pajdashi, Rakija, Zdravets, and Zornitsa. Ralph also plays violin and viola with several Boston-area community orchestras.

Brian has been involved with folk dance music in the Boston area for more than twenty years, being equally versatile on fiddle and clarinet, as well as tambura, whistle, and voice. He also is a specialist on the Hardanger fiddle and has played for numerous Scandinavian projects.