I live in Annapolis, Maryland, and fell in love with traditional dance when I began contra dancing in 1986. One thing led to another. Since that time my husband, John Wells, and I, have danced as often as possible, both locally and at dance weekends and dance camps. We founded our local dance 32 years ago.
By 1990 I had begun calling contra and square dances in the greater Baltimore-Washington area. In addition to the local dances, I have called at series dances in Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. I have also done a series of dance residencies with our county school system.
Throughout that period we attended English dances on an irregular basis, but in 2010 we became regular dancers at our local dances, and I made my first forays into calling and teaching ECD. I completed the mentoring program offered by the FSGW English Country Dance Committee.
Dancing and leading English dances, with its wide variety of musical forms, styles, the richness of its repertoire, has given me a much greater appreciation of how dance and music are related in traditional dancing. With the advent of virtual dancing, we are exploring new ways to dance these same dances without the benefit of dancing with others, as well as learning new dances created for one or two dancers. We are keeping the tradition alive!
