Rachel is a caller who strives to communicate the joy and connectedness of dancing. After learning to dance in Boston, Rachel eventually realized her passion for calling after moving to Chicago. Now living full time in Scotland, Rachel has called throughout America, the UK, and in Paris. Rachel's high-energy approach involves clear, concise walk-throughs, and a dedication to flexibility in teaching and programming. Rachel is especially excited to be able to combine her background in early childhood education and love of music to the Childgrove classes this year at Cumberland! 

Harrison Keely is a dance caller from western North Carolina who specializes in contra dances. A regular on the John C. Campbell Folk School schedule, he studied calling under Diane Silver and has since called at more than 150 events in the region.

His experience includes community dances in Knoxville, Sautee, and Chattanooga, as well as guest calling at Folk School events such as Fools Ball, Fall Festival, Winter Dance Week, and Little Middle, along with camps and private celebrations. Last summer he served as assistant to Gaye Fifer for the Folk School’s Dance Caller’s Course. He also calls some English and square dances.

Harrison is especially passionate about encouraging dancers—particularly young people—to try their hand at calling, and he enjoys mentoring them toward success. Known for his welcoming energy, he is committed to creating joyful dance floors where everyone feels confident and connected. 

Wendy Graham (Durango, Colorado), self-described “dance maniac,” is thrilled to be back at Cumberland dance week. Her passion for music, song and dance caught fire in 1991 on a Danish-American Exchange (DAE) youth dance tour to Denmark. Today, Wendy leads English and American folk dances and teaches social dance across the country and abroad. She proudly served on the Lloyd Shaw Foundation and Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) boards, and the CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award committee. She loves building community and sharing the joy of music, song and dance with people of all ages and abilities.   

www.perkypantsdance.com

Jared Kirkpatrick (Starling, Flamingo Sketches) has been immersed in the contra dance world all his life, and has been lucky enough to play with multiple dance bands. With very broad musical influences and interests from Balkan harmony singing to fusion and jazz music, he loves focusing on the possibilities that arise when these styles influence each other and come together. Having studied jazz vibraphone at Temple University, Jared is now based in NC - taking every excuse to travel to dances across the country, with either a mandolin or a mixing board in tow. 

Al is a retired teacher of Appalachian music for string instruments at Berea College and is best known for his mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and banjo playing, teaching any and all of these when asked. He was the leader of two energetic student groups, the Berea College Bluegrass Ensemble and Mariachi Berea. Al plays fiddle and mandolin in the Berea Cast-Offs dance band. Al is also a member of the McLain Family Band and Al, Alice and Ruth. He and Alice have been staff musicians at CCDS in Berea, Pinewoods, Buffalo Gap, Kentucky Summer Dance School/Cumberland Family Dance Camp, and other dance weeks. 

Alice plays bass and rhythm mandolin. She began performing bluegrass and Appalachian music as a preteen with her family, The McLain Family Band, a band which continues performing today. She and Al have been playing for Appalachian, English, and Danish dancing for decades, and have toured many years with the Berea Festival Dancers and the Berea College Country Dancers. She and Al were founding members of the Berea Castoffs and the Oh Contraire Dance Association. 

Julia Weatherford is a veteran performer on both cello and fiddle with notable performing groups that range from The Asheville Symphony to the world fusion Akira Satake Band.  In the contra dance world, Julia has been  known as a driving old-time fiddler and grooving cellist in bands such as Far Horizons, Fly by Night, and Sugar High.  She was the artistic director of the legendary Black Mountain Festival in its early years, and more recently, spent many years at the Swannanoa Gathering as the Logistics Director and the Fiddle Week Coordinator. As a fiber artist and quilter, Julia was a longtime member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Currently she performs regionally with StrathSpan and Briar Branch.

Sam is a traditional musician known throughout the United States for his mandolin, banjo, and guitar playing as well as his original music. His compositions have been profiled on NPR’s All Things Considered and his playing has been featured on the Thistle & Shamrock, and in two Ken Burns documentaries, Prohibitionand The Dust Bowl.

Sam has recorded with a virtual who’s who of traditional musicians, among them: Garry Harrison, Paul Brown, Eden MacAdam-Somer,  Rafe Stefanini, Pete Sutherland, Dirk Powell, Rodney Miller, David Greely, and Rick Good.

Sam is also a master entertainer, and author of The Best of Stuntology (Workman, 2008) which is sold internationally and translated into Finnish and German. As an artist, Sam has for the past 20 years played a role in the resurgent interest in the 19th century entertainment form, the moving panorama, or “crankie show.”    www.sambartlett.com/

Eric Schedler plays accordion, piano and banjo for contra, square and English country dancing with Midwest-based bands the Cosmic Otters and Supertrad. With his playing firmly rooted in traditional Irish music, Eric has performed and taught at camps and festivals around the country, and currently serves as program director of the all-ages Cumberland Dance Week, a project of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation, of which Eric is also a member of the board of directors. Eric lives in Bloomington, IN with his wife, Katie Zukof, where they run a family dance series, raise their two daughters and operate a brick-oven bakery. thecosmicotters.com

Stacy grew up in north central Indiana with a teacher parent and a love for slow summer vacations. She lived in Chicago, New York, Paris, and southern France before returning to Indiana to start her own family. A French immersion summer camp inspired her love for working with young people, and she has been teaching French and English ever since. Stacy has been working with Child Grove here at Cumberland for the past three years, and it's become one of her family's favorite places to spend time together!

Maia has been a member of the Cumberland Dance Week family since the age of five and hasn’t stopped spreading her love of music and dance since. She is a trained classical violinist at Northern Kentucky University and can be found playing contra dances throughout Kentucky with Mixed Nuts. She loves to dabble in other genres such as jazz, dubstep, and Celtic music. Maia studies acting and voice and loves teaching songs and games for all ages. As a teenager, Maia made it her goal to help foster an inclusive and welcoming camp environment and co-founded the teen jam to encourage young musicians to explore the contra music scene. She is thrilled to be on staff for the first time. 

Sarah Wendtlandt grew up in Germany dancing and traveling throughout Europe with her parents’ International Folk dance group. From a young age she also studied ballet, tap, Irish step dance and ballroom. In 2005 she received her associate's degree in modern dance and choreography in Austin, Texas. Sarah toured throughout Texas with the Hungarian Folk dance performance group Csardas for a few years before relocating to Staunton, Virginia in 2018. Here she has discovered her love for contra and is eagerly planning on starting a Balkan dance group in the Shenandoah Valley. Sarah is a massage therapist and specializes in Ashiatsu, where she ‘dances’ on the massage table using her feet to massage clients. She is very involved in the local community theater as an actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer. 

Jonathan is an avid dance fiddler, pianist, and melodeon player coming to us from Chicago. Drawing from a variety of British Isle-based traditions, he regularly performs for contras, squares, Irish sets, and English country dances. He is also a dancer and musician for both Pullman Morris and Sword and Fox Valley Morris. Being a dancer himself, he brings intricate, energetic and tasteful music to his performances. His current musical endeavors include the Cosmic Otters (founding member), Chicago Reel, and I Am Ireland (a nationally touring show featuring the personality of Paddy Homan).  thecosmicotters.com/

Meg Dedolph plays guitar and drums for the Cosmic Otters and is a dance caller in the Chicago area. She also teaches parent-child music classes for the Old Town School of Folk Music’s Wiggleworms program.

thecosmicotters.com