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 SAN ANTONIO FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL

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VONNIE BROWN (Czech)
Vonnie Brown was born of Norwegian-American family, whom she credits with her love and appreciation of cultural tradition. She holds a Master of Science degree and has taught dance at the secondary and university levels in North Dakota, California, Utah, Washington, and Louisiana. She has also taught in Japan and in the Czech Republic. 

Vonnie has taught at most of the major folk dance camps, including California Kolo Festival, Kentucky Dance Institute, and the Florida, Maine, Mainewoods, New England, Stockton, and Texas Folk Dance Camps. She has also taught many workshops around the country, including those at the Denver Viltis Festival, Laguna Beach Festival, San Antonio Folk Dance Festival, Washington State University Festival, and Wisconsin Folklore Village. 

Beginning in 1972, Vonnie was instrumental in bringing recreational international folk dancing to Louisiana. She is the artistic director and choreographer for the Karpaty Folk Ensemble of Baton Rouge which she founded in 1972. Karpaty accepted two official invitations from the Slovak and Czech Republics to participate in various seminars and performance tours. 

Beginning in 1976, Vonnie made annual tips abroad to study and research dance, primarily in Central Europe (including the Slovak and Czech Republics) and Eastern Europe (including the former Yugoslavia). During her travels she has gathered together a superb collection of folk arts, including original costumes and music instruments. 

In 1986, Vonnie received the San Antonio Folk Festival annual award for outstanding contributions in folk dance. In 1993, The National Folk Organization of the U.S.A. (NFO) honored her, and Slovak government recognized her for the work she has done in the preservation and dissemination of Slovak dance and folklore. Vonnie been very active in the NFO, including serving as the organizations president. She was elected president of the NFO for the period 1999 to 2003. 

Vonnie has had numerous articles published in professional journals. She founded and for 19 years edited the folklore newsletter Folk Dance Scene-Baton Rouge. 

Dances Vonnie has taught include Danish Dance of Greeting, Kendime, Kinderpolka, Krucena, Louky, Sotyskaya, Tance z Kracunoviec, Sekerecka/Basistovka, Shoemaker's Dance, Sudeten Spinradel for Three, Zemlinske Karicke, and Vychodoslovenske Karicke. 

For additional information about Vonnie, please click on Dick Oakes' Phantom Ranch web site.  All of these bio notes and photo were borrowed from Dick. with his permission.   [TOP]

PAUL COLLINS (Honoree/ Int'l / Contra /Square)

Paul Collins is an accomplished instructor of various types of ethnic folk dance and a caller of traditional American square and contra dance.  He is the founder and director of Ethnic Dance Chicago and co-director of the Door County Folk Festival, now in its 25th year of operation as one of Midwest's most popular and enjoyable dance and music festivals. He directed and produced the University of Chicago International Folk Festival for 12 years. 

 He is director of the C & J Dancers (an ethnic dance demonstration group) and a long-time member and ex-officer and director of the Folk Dance Council of Chicago.  He has conducted dance classes and workshops and organized performing groups for adult and family recreation programs and for school programs in the US, Canada and Europe. 

 Paul's other avocations include, hiking, squash, volleyball, softball, travel, foreign languages, music (classical, jazz, blues, ethnic), sound engineering, opera, theater, model railroading, website development, and exploring new internet technologies.  He makes his home in Chicago. [TOP]

MIHAI DAVID (Our MC / Romanian)

Mihai David was born in Bucharest, Romania, and began dancing at the age of eight at the Pioneers' Youth Palace. Two years later, he began attending a School of Choreography in Bucharest, and continued there for eight years.  While there, he studied extensively the various forms of dance -- classical ballet, character, modern and folk. Even before his graduation at the age of 17, he was dancing with the Romanian State Folk Ballet Ciocarlia and became their lead dancer. He continued touring with the troupe throughout Europe until his defection to Italy in 1966.

  A year later, Mihai emigrated to the United States, where he danced with the Boston Ballet Company, and had his own exhibition group within the Detroit, Michigan, Romanian community. He then moved to California and danced adagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.  While in the US Army, he danced classical ballet with a ballet company in Augusta, GA .

Mihai has taught Romanian dance at the San Francisco Kolo Festival, the Stockton Folk Dance Camp, and the Santa Barbara Folk Dance Conference. In Hollywood, CA, he opened and operated his Gypsy Camp Coffee House. He was also co-director of the Hawaii and Santa Barbara Folk Dance Symposiums and the Catalina International Dance Festival.

Mihai has devoted himself to teaching Romanian folk dance and has introduced many of the most popular Romanian dances being done in the United States and Canada. His teaching tours have taken him throughout the western hemisphere, the Orient, and Australia. Today,

Mihai makes his home in Southern California where he operates his own construction company and teaches Romanian dance in his free time. 

For additional information about Mihai, please click on Dick Oakes' Phantom Ranch web site.  This photo was borrowed from Dick. with his permission.  [TOP]

PHYLLIS DIAMOND (Honoree / International)

Phyllis Diamond has been teaching dance since the age of 15.  She taught ballroom and social dancing in the Washington Area from 1959 – 1962, and began teaching International Folk Dancing in 1964.  For several years in the 70’s, she taught Folk Dancing at the National Folk Festival at Wolf Trap Park.

Phyllis has been an instructor with the Montgomery County Department of Recreation for over 40 years.  She and her husband, Mel, helped establish the Buffalo Gap Dance Camp in West Virginia. 

Currently, Phyllis and her son, Brandon, organize and run the Diamond Dance Circle conference, which takes place annually on Memorial Day weekend in Maryland. [TOP]

GEORGE FOGG (English Country Dancing)

George A. Fogg was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and raised in the neighboring town of Salisbury.  He began English dancing with the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.  In 1968, when the leader and principle teacher retired, the Appalachian Mountain Club's Country Dance Society "Cardigan Dance/Hiking Weekend" needed another teacher/leader. George was selected and has been teaching English Country Dance ever since. For his years of service to the organization, he was made a "Life Member" of the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

In 1968, with Ms. Joe Ray, he started the South Weymouth English Country Dance Group in Weymouth, Mass. George says, "It was out of this group I was able to present my first George Washington's Birthday Ball in 1984."  He has continued presenting the ball ever since.  He is also well known as a regular at the Mainewoods Dance Camp, whether he's on the staff or helping in the kitchen or wherever needed and teaching a dance or two at the evening parties. 

He has been the Dancing Master at the Hartford Playford Ball in Hartford, Connecticut, Sudbury Militia Balls at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Mass., and the Billerica Colonial Minutemen, Billerica, Mass. He holds membership in several dance organizations, including the Country Dance and Song Society of America (CDSSA, Haydenville, Mass.), Country Dance Society (CDS, Boston Centre, Inc.), English Folk Dance & Song Society (London, England), New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA), Pinewoods Morris Men (PMM), and Black Joker Morris Men. He has produced nearly forty Christmas Country Dance Balls and George Washington Birthday Balls. George has been on hundreds of Morris tours, including England with the PMM and Black Jokers.

George has published several folk dance-related books (and has several works in progress), including

For additional information about George, please click on Dick Oakes' Phantom Ranch web site.  All of these bio notes and photo were borrowed from Dick. with his permission.   [TOP]

BOB LEIBMAN (Balkan)
Robert Henry "Bob" Leibman spent a considerable amount of time in villages in Macedonia and East Serbia, studying wedding customs and dance. Most of his folk dance teaching is of the dances he learned from villagers. 

Bob was born and raised in Chicago, IL.  As a junior at the University of Chicago in 1961, Bob began a life-long interest in ethnic dance. After receiving a masters degree in mathematics in St. Louis, MO, taught mathematics at Boston State College. In 1974, he finished a master's degree in folklore & mythology at UCLA.  He received his Ph.D. in 1993.  Bob currently teaches mathematics at Austin Community College. 

Bob made many research trips to Yugoslavia.  He also spent the entire academic year 1970-71 there on a Fulbright Scholarship studying wedding customs--an interest developed on his first trip when he was invited to attend a tradiitonal wedding in the Macedonian village of Pectani, just outside of Ohrid. He also traveled extensively in southeast Serbia.

During all of his trips, he attended a number of major folk festivals of the country. He filmed and recorded the village groups who performed at these festivals. Bob devoted a good portion of his trip during the summer of 1972 to recording music. He subsequently released an album with dances and songs from the Soko Banja area.  He also released an LP entitled "Traditional Tosk (Southern Albanians) Songs and Dances from the Lake Prespa Area." 

Among Bob's publications and dance syllabi for recordings are:
Dancing Bears and Purple Transformations: The structure of dance in the Balkans. Leibman, Robert Henry, 1992. 449p. Illustrated. 
Macedonian Folk Dances. Leibman, Robert, 1972. 40p. Illustrated. Dances presented by Pece Atanasovski (Petre Vasilev). Edited by David Golber. Illustrated by Neil Siegel. Snark Records. 

Dances Bob has taught include Beraçe, Cacak, Dancu, Deliagos, Devolliçe, Dzidzibarka, Grçkoto (Kalamatianos), Juta, Memedo, Mori Odajo, Nesho, Oj Devoce Rititi (Potam Povam), Osamputka, Paški Tanac, Pembe, Poloska, Rumenka, Sarakinskoto, Šokec, Sokobanjska Gajda, Stara Vlaina, Staro Selsko, Što Mi Je Milo, and Todorka.

For additional information about Bob, please click on Dick Oakes' Phantom Ranch web site.  All of these bio notes were borrowed from Dick. with his permission.   [TOP] 

MIROSLAV "BATA" MARCETIC (Serbian)

Miroslav Bata Marcetic was a leading performer, soloist and choreographer, with the Serbian National Folk Ensemble “Kolo” in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro (former Yugoslavia) for seventeen years and is the recipient of several awards for his artistic work. He has attended almost all folk dance seminars held in former Yugoslavia and eventually, he became the instructor of several workshops held in former Yugoslavia, Japan, Israel and currently in Canada and the USA. As a well-known choreographer, he was chosen by the Folk Dance Association of Serbia to be a judge at folklore competitions that were taking place in Serbia and Montenegro from 1980 to 1993.

Miroslav created a great number of choreographies which have won either first or second prizes in competitions, both in Former Yugoslavia and in Canada. Under his artistic direction, many ensembles have won artistic awards, such as: In Serbia: Ensemble of “Dom Kulture Banatsko Novo Selo” at Ruma Provincial Folk Dance Competition: 3rd place in 1977, 1975, 1985, 1987, 1983; 2nd place in 1989; and 1st place in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and 1991; In Canada: “Hajduk Veljko” Ensemble from Toronto: 2nd place at the Kiwanis Music Festival in 2001; and SCA “Oplenac” from Mississauga: 2nd place in 2002 and 1st place in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004 at the Kiwanis Music Festival; 1st place in 2000 and 2004 at the CHIN Canada Day International Festival, and was awarded the Order of National Merit, 2nd degree in 2003 by V.Kostunica, the former president of Serbia & Montenegro.

In Canada, Miroslav works in several dance associations and ensembles: Kralj Petar II from Winona since 1993, , Serbian Club “Kordun” since 2004 and he worked in S.C.A. “Oplenac” in Mississauga from 1993 until 2004 and in Folk Dance Ensemble “Hajduk Veljko” from Toronto from 1999 until 2006. Due to his long-term, dedicated and victorious work in the Canadian Serbian community, on December 26th 2005 Miroslav was awarded the Golden Plaque by the Cultural-Academic State Association of Serbia.

In 2004, Miroslav established his own school of dance, “Academy of Serbian Folk Dancing” which includes more than 300 dancers of all ages, and a folk band instructed and directed by Mica Petrovic, a music coach par excellence, whose last forty years of his adult life have been dedicated to publicizing and promoting Serbian folk music. The Academy of Serbian Folk Dancing is the winner of the 2005 and 2006 Folkloric Event at Kiwanis Music Festival and also the winner at 2005 and 2006 CHIN Picnic Canada Day Festival competition, in both junior and senior categories.

Miroslav simultaneously works with the international folk dance community where he is teaching Serbian and East-European dances. These include the Ontario Folk Dance Association (2001, 2002 & 2005 in Waterloo and 2005 in Toronto), Hamilton International (1995, 1998, 2000 & 2005), McMaster University (1995 - 1998) among others. His most recent workshops were held in Bridgton, Maine (2001, 2002, and 2004); Boston, Massachusetts (2002); San Antonio, Texas (2002, 2005), Fairlee, Vermont (2002); Pocono Manor Resort, Pennsylvania (2003); Socorro, New Mexico (2003); and the Camp Crystal Lake, Florida (February 2006), Mainewoods, Fryeburg Maine, USA (2006) and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (November 2006). His upcoming workshops are in Ottawa, Ontario in February 2007 and in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in April 2007.

Miroslav Bata Marcetic has devoted his entire professional career to the preservation and perpetuation of folklore and dance. His contribution to the Canadian Serbian folklore community is immeasurable.   

For additional information about Miroslav, please click on Dick Oakes' Phantom Ranch web site.  This photo was borrowed from Dick. with his permission.  [TOP]

SANDY STARKMAN (Honoree / International)

Sandy Starkman comes from Toronto, Canada, where she taught special education for many years.  Since retiring, she teaches several weekly dance classes. 

 She has been the teacher on nine of Mel Mann's Dance on the Water Cruises and teaches every year at the Kentucky Dance Institute.  Sandy has also taught at many workshops and camps in Eastern Canada and the United States as well as in Australia and New Zealand.  She has taught several teacher training courses for the Toronto Board of Education and the University of Toronto.

Sandy was on the staff of Maine Folk Dance Camp from 1980 until it closed. She has been the  President of the Mainewoods Dance Camp Board and also the President of the Ontario Folk Dance Camp Committee.

Sandy is well known for the easy way she breaks down dances, for getting everyone moving quickly, and for running a fun evening program.  She has been a guest teacher at the Kentucky Dance Institute for many years

Credit to Mainewoods Dance Camp  website for most of the above bio and photo.
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