Our Teachers (the 4 Aces)

We are pleased to announce that

Dorothy Cummings

will be joining our roster in the 2025-26 season.

Dorothy Cummings has been participating in English county dance since 1997, when The New York Times ran Linda Wolfe’s article “Dancing in Jane Austen’s Footsteps.” She undertook a calling apprenticeship at CDNY in 2009-2012 and leads ECD at CDNY, the NYC metro area, the Hudson Valley, and further afield. Dorothy regards English country dancers as part of a community that extends from the 1600s to the present, and she relishes sharing the classics. She is fascinated by the variety of ways that people learn and motivated to ease the learning process. With crisp diction, lively musicality, and personal warmth, Dorothy promotes an encouraging and rewarding ECD experience to keep dancers coming back.

Orly Krasner discovered English Country Dancing while writing her doctoral dissertation on a totally unrelated musical topic. She apprenticed under Fried de Metz Herman, Paul Ross, Beverly Francis, & Gene Murrow. She now teaches regularly in New York and is a frequent guest in other dance communities around the world. (She has taught at various folk festivals in the UK (including Lichfield, Whitby, and the Southam Gathering). Orly has also taught twice in Japan along with Gene Murrow.

Intrigued by the idea of music made visible, Orly is also a choreographer and has published Celebrations, a book of twenty dances. (The matching CD, recorded by Reunion, contains fifteen of the tunes in danceable lengths.)

In “real” life, Orly holds a Ph.D. in Musicology and teaches in the music department at the City College of New York.

Judi Rivkin has been dancing all her life. Her main influences in dance leadership have been Genny Shimer, Sue Salmons, Brad Foster, Fried de Metz Herman, Bruce Hamilton, Helene Cornelius, Christine Helwig, & her parents, who met while folk dancing in New York City! Her dad (a former Pinewoods camper & lifeguard) was at one time a ballroom dance teacher at Arthur Murray's own Fifth Avenue studio; later on, for many years, he led square & round dancing.

Judi currently resides in Ewing, NJ (between Princeton & Trenton), & is an active participant in dance communities up & down the coast. Her latest endeavor is a well-received annual series of intermediate/advanced English Country Dance workshops, entitled "Stepping Up," taught in Princeton with Sue Dupré.

Paul Ross has been dancing English country dance since 1971, when he joined the University of Chicago Country Dancers under the direction of Pat Talbot, an inspired teacher & leader who taught English & Scottish country dancing, morris, gamalpolska, & hambo.

In 1981, Paul moved to New York City. His teachers were the master callers of those years: Genny Shimer, Christine Helwig, Fried Herman, Sue Salmons, Bertha Hatvary, & others. He also had the privilege of dancing to music played by Phil Merrill & Marshall Baron, two legendary English country dance musicians.

In 1993, Paul became an apprentice teacher in Westchester, studying under Christine Helwig & Fried Herman. Fried, in particular, was the major influence on Paul's dancing & shaped his understanding & vision of ECD. To help preserve that vision & the dances that Fried created, Paul founded The Lenox Assembly in Lenox, MA (2009-2022), a dance weekend dedicated to the art of dancing well.