Featured Guests First Session

  • Anna Angelova (Bulgarian)

    Anna grew up in a small town in N. Bulgaria, where her interest in folklore was kindled at a young age. She joined the town’s folk dance ensemble and learned from esteemed choreographers. After coming to Boston, Anna spent 8 years dancing with Ahmet Luleci’s Collage Dance Ensemble. In 2022, she was honored to teach Bulgarian Dance at Ahmet’s World Camp. She participated in Kolo Festival in 2023 and at Mainewoods in 2024. Anna shared the magic of Bulgarian folklore at Stockton Winter Weekend and at Festival Danzas Circulares in Mexico. She is active in the local Bulgarian community and dances with Ludo Mlado.

  • Penny Brichta (Israeli)

    Penny has been an avid Israeli dancer since college, spending her junior year at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She has attended dance workshops in the US and abroad, learning from the top choreographers in Israeli dance. She performed with Nitzanim, Chicago's premier Israeli Folk Dance Troupe for many years. Penny has been running and teaching the beginner's session at the popular Chicago Israeli Dance group for over 30 years. She is a regular teacher at the Door County Folk Festival and has taught Israeli dance at Madison Folk Ball, June Camp, KDI, Enon Valley, Ontario Folk Dance Camp, and Mainewoods Camp.

  • Željko Jergan (Croatian)

    Željko served for 12 years as a leading performer with the Croatian National Folk Ensemble, LADO, and has been a driving force in Croatian dance. He has restored details and authenticity to traditional dances, developed new choreographies from regions of Croatia that had hardly been touched, and has over 500 original choreographies to his credit. He’s served as Artistic Director for several ensembles in Canada, and also worked with ensembles in the States. He had the honor of serving as the Guest Conductor for the 2009 Junior Tamburitza Festival and in 2024 he was recognized for 50 years of professional work in promoting Croatian culture across the world by the Croatian Fraternal Union.

  • Lobster Quadrille (Folk Musicians)

    Julia Poirier, David Skidmore, Ralph Iverson, and Katie DeWolf have been playing folk dance music in Boston for the past three decades. Their collective expertise includes dance music from Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, and Romania. They are delighted to come together at Mainewoods for the first time as Lobster Quadrille. Will you, won’t you join the dance?

Featured Guests Second Session

  • Efie Derksen & Hans Derksen (Bosnian)

    Effie has been surrounded by Balkan music and dance from an early age. She’s a folk dance teacher with a specialty in Bosnian dances. In 2017, she danced for three months with the ensemble “Veselin Maslesa” in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she collected new dance material, and then made a documentary from her heart (My Borrowed Heritage). Hans has been playing music since he was a child, beginning with a little Hohner accordion and then progressing to bigger instruments. He has played at festivals and folk dance classes for many folk dance teachers.

  • Sonia Dion and Cristian Florescu (Romanian)

    Sonia and Cristian are known for their wonderful energy, warmth and exciting choice of dances and music. Cristian danced in various groups in Romania before joining Les Sortilèges, a professional folk dance company based in Montréal, where he danced, taught and choreographed. In the course of her 20 years with the same company, Sonia was lead dancer, choreographer and artistic director, among other roles. It was at Les Sortilèges that the two met and formed a professional and personal partnership. They teach workshops for recreational folk dance groups around the world, sharing their love of Romanian folk traditions.

  • Joseph (Joe) Kaloyanides Graziosi (Greek)

    Joe was born and raised in the greater Boston area. With a mania for Greek music and dance from an early age, Joe has done extensive research on regional dance in Greece and among Greek communities in the U.S. He has taught throughout the world, given talks on traditional Greek music and dance, and is a co-founder, with Paul Ginis, of New York's Greek American Folklore Society, and co-founder, with Ahmet Luleci, of World Music and Dance Camp. Over the past 40 years, Joe has become the most sought after teacher of Greek dance, as well as an expert researcher and ethnographer of Greek culture.

  • Pixton-Iverson Band (Folk Musicians)

    Tom Pixton is active as an Int’l, Balkan and Scottish musician and has played for many of today’s most accomplished dance teachers. Barbara Pixton started playing musical instruments at an early age, and plays with many bands, including with Tom. Ralph Iverson has been playing music for folk dance events since the mid- 80s, and has also been a member of numerous folk bands. We’re thrilled tohave them playing together for us this summer.