Doors at 7:30pm ~ Show at 8pm
Valentine’s Weekend Square Dance
“Let Me Fall…In Love!”
Welcoming the return of social dance, the Bay Area’s finest square dance callers and award winning stringband are thrilled to bring square dance back to Ashkenaz.
Dance Calling from the Bay’s finest Evie Ladin and Robin Fischer.
Live stringband music from Right to Parlay - multiple-time winners of the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention Stringband Contest!
No experience needed, all dances taught.
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Banjo player, singer, songwriter, percussive-dancer, choreographer and square-dance caller, Oakland, CA-based Evie Ladin grew up steeped in traditional folk music/dance on the East Coast, and brings a contemporary vision to her compositions and choreography while holding fast to the roots. Her performances, recordings and teaching reconnect Appalachian music/dance with other African-Diaspora traditions, and have been heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections, from Brazil to Bali. A rowdy dance caller, Evie loves getting all ages and abilities easily dancing, laughing and participating in organized chaos.
Robin Fischer is a passionate square dance utility player - caller, musician, dancer, and organizer. She started calling in 2014 and has since led dances up and down the west coast and beyond at festivals, community dances, summer camps, and private events. She can't think of a better place to be than leading squares beside a fiery hot old time band.
From the ashes of the Santa Cruz thrash scene, multi-instrumentalist Mike Lewinski brought together the defining elements of Right To Parlay with his signature hard driving banjo. The rhythm is held steady by Dan Kluger on guitar, who you may know from his performance as 3rd chair Tenor Recorder in the Fremont Opera's production of Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde" in 2015. Dane Miller and Thomas Angell play screaming double fiddle. Dane is the former concertmaster of Lincoln High School Orchestra, and multiple award winner at the BOTMC band contests circa 2010-2022. Thomas Angell is the former first chair violinist at Live Oak Waldorf School Orchestra.