Teachers for 2008

Mainewoods (home)

The Mainewoods
Experience

Schedule

Teachers

Fees & Membership

Registration Form

Day Rates

Scholarships

Directions & Maps

What to Bring /
Accommodations

Contacts

Staff

Camp Pictures &
News

Dance Links

Susan Anderson , Roberto Bagnoli , Wim Bekooy , Daniela Ivanova , Monique Legare , Kay Munn , Maurice Perez , Barbara Pixton , David Vinski , Carol Wadlinger , Ron Wixman

Susan Anderson (International Folk Musician) has been actively involved in the folk dance community since 1962 as an international folk dancer and musician. She has led international singing workshops for groups, festivals and schools and has taught folk dancing in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Her talents are many: she sings and plays fiddle, gaida, balalaika, keyboard, guitar and tambura. Along with Carol Wadlinger, Susan is a member of the International Folk Sounds, a folk dance band that plays for folk dances, festivals, concerts and special events. In addition, Susan is the president of the Folk Dance Council of the Delaware Valley, leads a weekly dance and a monthly international music jam, and performs Appalachian clogging with the Fiddlekicks.

Roberto Bagnoli (Italian) grew up in Rome, where he was first introduced to folk music and dance, eventually taking part in several performances and teaching dance classes. He subsequently studied various forms of folk dance in workshops throughout Europe, Israel, and North America under the guidance of renowned choreographers and teachers. From 1995 to 2003, he performed as a dancer and choreographer with the Terra di Danza Dance Company and was involved in the production of Raggi di luna Italiana and Capriccio Italiano (Italian dances), GiroGiroMondo (dances from around the world), Keltic Emotion (Celtic dances), Mazal Tov (Israeli dances), and Ethnos (international folk dances). He is the founder of Folk Atelier Reggio Emilia (FARE), devoted to the development and conservation of folk dance heritage. Roberto now lives in Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy, considered to have one of the most important dance communities in Italy.

Wim Bekooy (International) is known for his eclectic dance interests, including Albanian, Flamenco, and Asian dances. He began folk dancing in 1978, completed a degree in dance education from the Rotterdam Dance Academy, and did multiple tours in the U.S., Europe and Japan in the 1990s. This includes six months in Japan in 1992, where he danced as part of the stage ensemble of Nagasaki Holland Village. He was artistic director of two performing ensembles in the Netherlands and choreographed several award-winning suites of Dutch dances. He looks forward to his Mainewoods debut.

Daniela Ivanova (Bulgarian) was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She graduated from "St Kliment Ohridski" University of Sofia, majoring in Bulgarian Language and Literature (1994), Philosophy (1996) with a minor in Cultural Anthropology (1997). Prior to that, in 1983, she completed a course of study in Bulgarian Folk Dances at the Institute of Music and Choreography in Sofia. In her career, Daniela was a choreographer of various children, student and adults folk dance groups. Her scientific papers and major research cover the field of ethno-choreology with a focus on traditional Balkan dances. From 2003-2007 she carried out a series of workshops along the U.S. East Coast, Mid West, and California. Currently she teaches Philosophy and Ethnography and works on her PhD thesis at the Institute of Art Studies, Ethnomusicology Department at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Monique Legare (Hungarian) is an internationally known teacher of Folk Dance and a native of Montréal, Canada. She trained and performed with les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal Ballet Company and studied dance in Canada, USA, Poland, and Puerto Rico. She graduated from the Choreography School in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and did extensive research on folk dance in Hungary. She has taught on the North American continent, Poland and Ukraine and is an authority on French Canadian clogging. A remarkably versatile dancer and teacher, she directs the Monique Legaré International Dance Company and the Professional Dance Academy of Montgomery County. With late husband Dr. Morley Leyton, director of the Janosik Polish dancers, she won first place at the 2003 and 2004 state of Pennsylvania's polka dance championships.

Kay Munn (Scottish) grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, where she was introduced to Scottish Country Dancing in school. She emigrated to Canada in 1986, and has lived in the Toronto area, South Carolina and upstate New York. Following a chance remark at a Burns night celebration in Binghamton, NY, she was reintroduced to the dance in 1998 and enjoyed classes with renowned deviser Terry Glasspool and at Cornell. Kay returned to live in Canada in 2001, in Kingston, ON, where the local RSCDS Branch immediately adopted her. With support from the Branch and an RSCDS scholarship, she obtained her Teachers Certificate in St Andrews, Scotland. Kay has taught classes at all levels and currently teaches the advanced class in Kingston. She is a proud Scot who is as comfortable baking shortbread, clootie dumpling or scones, knitting kilt hose, or addressing haggis…but has little time for much of this…because she's usually dancing!

Maurice Perez (Israeli) is celebrating in 2008, 40 years of dancing as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. He studied ballet, modern, jazz, and mime in Paris with a great master teacher. Since 1978, Maurice has made Montreal his home where he built his universe in Israeli dancing as director of his own group, The Harimon Israeli Dancers. He founded and directed his own dance camp, Danse Montréal, for 20 years, and has worked with adults, children, teenagers, and seniors for the last 30 years in schools and golden age centers to prepare shows, festivals and holiday celebrations. Maurice has choreographed for The Montréal Yiddish Theatre and TV productions, and has performed on stage in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Since 1982, Maurice has choreographed his own dances and has taught some of them at a teachers' dance seminar in Israel, in many camps in north America (of course Mainewoods) and Europe. He won the first prize in Caesarea, Israel, in a contest of new dances with his dance Hora Gil.

Barbara Pixton (International Folk Musician) [left in photo] began playing her mother's button accordion at the age of eight. She moved on to the piano, obtaining a degree in piano performance from Boston University. A folk dancer for many years, in the early 1990's she and her husband Tom Pixton began playing for dances. Since then they have put together several bands, played at music festivals and dance camps all over the US, published a music book, and made several recordings. Barbara has picked up skills on many other instruments including double bass, santouri, guitar, flute, violin and panflute. In 1994 she started the International Music Club under the sponsorship of the Folk Arts Center of New England. She is known for her wonderful ability to pull together amateur musicians for music-making and merriment.

David Vinski (Balkan) has been dancing since 1958 when he first learned Malo kolo at Croatian Fraternal Union lodge 4 in Pittsburgh. This early interest in his heritage led to a scholarship with the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. Well known throughout the US and Canada for his master classes and workshops, David has been on the staff of International Folk Dance Camp, Kentucky Dance Institute, Oglebay Dance Camp, Pinewoods Dance Camp and Mainewoods Dance Camp. Currently he is Managing Director of the Pittsburgh Playhouse, a laboratory for the Conservatory of Performing Arts of Point Park University. Campers know they can count on David for a great variety of talents – among them breaking down the most intricate Serbian rhythms, calling a contra, and baking the most delicious breads!

Carol Wadlinger (International Folk Musician) started playing music when she was five years old. Her first instrument was the piano, and at ten she switched to the flute. A few years ago, she added the English concertina. Along with folk musician Susan Anderson, Carol is a member of the International Folk Sounds, a folk dance band that plays for folk dances, festivals, concerts, and community events. She also plays in various contra dance bands, a klezmer band, a concertina band, and a small ensemble that plays at synagogue. She particularly enjoys encouraging adults to make music with others. When she is not busy playing music, she is on the floor dancing. She and her husband Bill started and ran the Beaver Folk Dance group in the Philadelphia area for over 25 years. She only wishes she could play music and folk dance at the same time.

Ron Wixman (Balkan) Ron Wixman (alias Ronnie of Ronnie and Steve from New York) started folk dancing in 1962 and has made over 30 research trips to the Balkans. In addition to studying village dance he has acquired one of the largest and best collections of folk costumes of Macedonia, Croatia and Romania in the U.S. and Canada. For the past 32 years he has been an award winning professor of cultural and political geography at the University of Oregon and leads tours all over the world for museums, insititutes, and university groups and he has visited 139 countries in the past 25 years. He has introduced many Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Armenian dances based on his original research.