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Joanna Reiner Wilkinson

The Mad Robin workshop, ball, and Sunday dance will be led by Joanna Reiner Wilkinson. Joanna has taught English dance for over two decades. In addition to being one of the leaders of the Philadelphia-based Germantown Country Dancers, her calling has taken her from Amherst to Ann Arbor, from NEFFA to Hey Days, from St. Croix to Vancouver, and other points abroad, including many sessions for the Country Dance & Song Society (CDSS) and CDS Boston Centre at Pinewoods Camp. While known for her clear calling and instruction, Joanna loves teaching workshops for ECD callers, and workshops that explore ECD technique, new dances, and how people learn and remember dance choreography.

Kalia Kliban

The Friday evening welcome dance will be led by our beloved Kalia Kliban, programmer and regular caller at the Sebastopol Dance. Kalia has been part of the California Bay Area traditional dance scene since the mid-80s, performing and teaching in a wide range of styles. At dance camps and festivals across the country and across the pond, she has taught morris, longsword, English and American clogging, English country dance and contra, and she’s a regular contra and English caller in the vibrant Bay Area dance community. Her welcoming and relaxed teaching style has helped dancers of all levels experience the joy of traditional dance.

Kalia lives in Sebastopol with her own house band, fiddler Jon Berger, and some cats and chickens. She is an accomplished woodworker, now specializing in turning bowls and teaching other woodworkers.

Musicians for the Ball

Charlie Hancock

Charlie Hancock, pianist and accordionist, is equally adept playing for English country, Scottish country, contras, and display dancing. Performed with brilliance, drive and clarity, his music is infused with jazz, swing, and Irish influences. In addition to playing for dancers, he currently plays in Bay Area ensembles Erica & Friends (British isles songs & tunes), The Flagstones (contradance trio) and The Bogues (an 11-piece Pogues tribute band). He has performed and recorded with Shira Kammen, Sylvia Herold, Holly Tannen, Ray Bierl, and Cathie Whitesides.

Jim Oakden

Jim Oakden started playing piano and clarinet at an early age and stumbled into early music from the classical music scene. After six years performing early music, he discovered the world of traditional and ethnic music. Having diverse tastes, he has played in many bands and performs on an absurd number of instruments, including accordion, mandolin, clarinet, banjo, guitar, several styles of bagpipes, recorders, whistle and zurna (to name but a few). He has been on staff at myriad dance camps throughout the country. In addition to a CD of ECD music with the Whoots, he has 7 Roguery CDs, and 4 CDs with Persons of Quality.

Shira Kammen

Multi-instrumentalist Shira Kammen has spent much of her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music of all kinds. A member for many years of the early music ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, she has also worked with countless other groups, including, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, singers Azam Ali and Joanna Newsom, the Balkan group Kitka, Anonymous IV, the King’s Noyse, the Newberry and Folger Consorts, Roguery, the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is also the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to providing music on river rafting trips. Shira has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music in such schools as Yale University, Case Western, Harvard, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. She has played on a number of movie and television soundtracks, when weird medieval instruments are needed.

Musicians for the Friday night dance

Rebecca King

Rebecca King is a classically trained pianist with strong roots in Jazz and Folk Music. A sought–after musician for American Contra Dances and English Country Dances, her interpretations breathe strong, rhythmical energy and deeply moving grace. Rebecca’s great-grandfather, living in a small pioneer town in the west, moved his log cabin from his farm into town to be closer to play the fiddle for the town dances. Playing for community dances runs deep in Rebecca’s soul. Rebecca has performed and taught workshops at many balls and dance camps across the US, as well as internationally in Italy and the UK. Rebecca performs solo and with small ensembles, including the bands Persons of Quality and Luceo.

Judy Linsenberg

Called “the Jascha Heifetz of the recorder,” Judith Linsenberg is one of the leading exponents of the recorder in the US and has been acclaimed for her “virtuosity,” “expressivity,” and “fearless playing.” She has performed throughout the US and Europe, including solo appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center; and has been featured with such leading ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony, the SF and Los Angeles Operas, the Oregon Symphony, LA Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, and American Bach Soloists, among others. She has recorded for Virgin Classics, Dorian, Solimar, Navona, harmonia mundi usa, Koch International, Reference Recordings, Musical Heritage Society, Drag City Records, and Hännsler Classics. She holds a doctorate in early music from Stanford University, and has been a visiting professor at the Vienna Conservatory and Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. In addition to her classical music pursuits, she loves playing for English Country Dances and is a member of the Odd Sundays English Garage Band, formed during the pandemic. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking with her adorable little dog, Jasper, playing a bit of Klezmer clarinet, and binge-watching series on Netflix. www.musicapacifica.org

Maggie Moore

Maggie Moore began her journey with the violin in the 4^th grade but put it aside after high school. At the approach of her 50^th birthday, she realized that she needed to reconnect with this old friend. She returned to her classical roots and played in string quartets at the College of Marin, then transitioned to Irish music and learned to play by ear. One day, quite by chance, she met Rebecca King at Lark Camp and was introduced to the ECD world. It was a homecoming that Maggie did not realize she had been yearning for until she began playing for local English dances and dancing herself (though she still plays in a couple of Irish bands). Last year, Maggie began composing her own tunes and had the joy of recording them with Rebecca King, Shira Kammen, and other talented musicians. Maggie released her first album, Late Bloomer, in February. This year Maggie also launched a new English country dance in Marin County, which she programs and manages.

Musicians for the ball workshop

Jon Berger

Jon Berger started playing violin in the fourth grade, but didn’t find out about folk music until, while working as a stage technician for the Palo Alto Youth Theater Workshop, he was asked to learn some Irish fiddle tunes to play in the background during a production of Brendan Behan’s “The Hostage.” He has been playing for English, Irish, Scottish, French, and American folk dancers for over 35 years. He toured with Celtic rockers Tempest and played in Celtic fusion band Greenhouse. Jon plays regularly for the dance weekends and weeks across the country and across the pond, as well as at our Sebastopol English country dance.

Gary Thomas

Gary Thomas is a musician and caller of Scottish dance forms and English country dance, as well as a composer of tunes and of dances in both genres. He has played in several bands, including Wild Rose, Hood, Wink & Swagger, and his newest, Flindrikin. This year Gary is the Music Director for the summer school of the Scottish Country Dance Teachers’ Association (Canada). He is a popular caller and musician for the Sebastopol English country dance.

Talent – Mad Robin Ball 2025

Joanna Reiner Wilkinson

Kalia Kliban