2020 Teachers (for reference only)

Dance

Joe Kaloyanides Graziosi

Greek Dance

Joseph Kaloyanides Graziosi was born and raised in the greater Boston area. Of Greek and Italian ancestry, Joe was exposed at an early age to Greek music and dance through both family contacts and...Read More

Steve Kotansky

Balkan Dance

Steve Kotansky, known widely as a versatile dancer and teacher, has made many research trips to Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary and Greece. He has been a regular on our teaching...Read More

Instruments & Ensembles

Paul Brown

House Bassist (non-teaching)

Paul Brown has been playing music for 44 years, studying bass and improvisation at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and oud and makam with Haig Manoukian and Necati Çelik. Comfortable in...Read More

George Chittenden

Clarinet

George Chittenden was drawn to the passion and drive expressed in the music and dance of the Balkans and Near East as a teenager in the 70s. He has lived and studied extensively abroad, traveling...Read More

Angel Dobrev

Gudulka

Angel Dobrev was born in the town of Omurtag in Bulgaria. He plays the gudulka (Bulgarian: гъдулка), which is a traditional Bulgarian bowed stringed instrument. He expressed an interest in...Read More

Catherine Foster

Trumpet, Balkan Ornamentation

Catherine Foster has been performing music from Southeastern Europe for over 30 years and has been playing trumpet, clarinet, and saxophone with Borozan Brass Band, Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band,...Read More

Valeri Georgiev

Bulgarian Kaval

Valeri Georgiev is from the Bulgarian Danube town of Ruse. He studied kaval in Kotel with Stoyan Chobanov and Georgi Penev, and graduated from the Plovdiv Academy of Arts with a BA degree in...Read More

Adam Good

Macedonian Tambura, Makam Theory

Adam Good is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. With a foundation in jazz guitar, his interest in the music of Eastern Europe and Turkey began in the mid-90s. His talent on...Read More

Christos Govetas

Greek Improvisation

Christos Govetas was born in the village of Proti, in the province of Serres in Greek Macedonia. After emigrating to Boston in 1978 he joined the Rebetiko band Taxími as a bouzouki and baglama...Read More

Greg Masaki Jenkins

Rebetika Ensemble

Greg Masaki Jenkins is a second-generation American Balkan folk dancer who grew up at the Balkan Music & Dance Workshops. He gigs regularly throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with the...Read More

Jerry Kisslinger

Tapan

Jerry Kisslinger has played tapan/dauli for East European and folk dance communities, classes, concerts, and festivals throughout the United States since his teenage years, and has taught at EEFC...Read More

Stoyan Kostov

Bulgarian Tambura

Stoyan Kostov has been playing Bulgarian tambura for over 40 years. He graduated from the folk music school in Kotel and the Plovdiv Academy of Music and Dance. Stoyan performed with Ensemble...Read More

Ari Langer

Violin

Ari Langer grew up in Ashland, Oregon, where he studied classical violin, performing in solo competitions and with local string quartets and orchestras. He took a sharp left turn to attend the...Read More

Mark Levy

Macedonian Village Ensemble

Mark Levy created the first week-long Balkan Music & Dance Workshop in 1974, and co-founded the East European Folklife Center in the early 1980s. He recently retired from the faculty of the...Read More

Lise Liepman

Santouri, Greek Ensemble

Lise began her involvement with Balkan music in 1976 in the vibrant dance scene of the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a member and director of Westwind International Folk Ensemble for many years....Read More

Nick Maroussis

Greek Strings, Rebetika Ensemble

Nick Maroussis is a musician based out of Seattle, Washington, where he grew up playing strings in various rock bands in the greater Seattle area. His involvement in the Greek community and...Read More

John Morovich

Tamburica Ensemble

John Morovich grew up in Seattle's sizable Croatian community. Since 1973, he has studied, taught, and performed traditional music and dance of Croatia and other parts of Southeastern...Read More

Sergiu Popa

Accordion

Sergiu Popa was born in Chişinau, Moldova. From a young age, he studied traditional folk and Roma (Gypsy) styles with his father, Ion Popa, himself a well-recognized Romani accordionist in...Read More

Maclovia Quintana

Doumbek - Beginning

Maclovia Quintana was born and raised in Santa Fe, NM, where she was surrounded by music from an early age. She has been performing Balkan music since college, when she joined the Yale Women's...Read More

Benji Rifati

Brass Band

Benji Rifati is an American-Rom who has spent years studying trumpet from Romani masters of Eastern Europe. His teachers include legends such as Zahir Ramadanov and Demiran Ćerimović, as well as...Read More

Sean Tergis

Doumbek - Intermediate

Drawing on a musical base in folk music from the Middle East, Turkey, Greece and the Balkans, Sean Tergis brings a unique element to his drumming through many different influences. At an early...Read More

Ivan Varimezov

Thracian Bulgarian Gajda, Bitov Ensemble

Ivan Varimezov was born in Bulgaria, studied folk music at Kotel High School for Folk Music and received a B.A. degree in folk instrument pedagogy and choral conducting from the Plovdiv Academy of...Read More

Singing

Bob Beer

Turkish Singing

Bob Beer is the grandson of a Greek immigrant from Marmara Island in northwestern Turkey. When he was nine years old his mother played a record of Greek music from Istanbul, and his interest İn...Read More

Christos Govetas

Greek Singing

Christos Govetas was born in the village of Proti, in the province of Serres in Greek Macedonia. After emigrating to Boston in 1978 he joined the Rebetiko band Taxími as a bouzouki and baglama...Read More

John Morovich

Croatian Singing

John Morovich grew up in Seattle's sizable Croatian community. Since 1973, he has studied, taught, and performed traditional music and dance of Croatia and other parts of Southeastern...Read More

Michele Simon

Balkan Vocal Technique

Michele Simon has been involved with music all of her life, and with Balkan folk music for most of it, as a dancer, singer, drummer and teacher. She was raised surrounded by music of all kinds,...Read More

Lily Storm

Balkan Singing Survey

Lily Storm is a singer specializing in traditional music, with particular experience in Eastern European styles. She has studied with many traditional singers (Donka Koleva, Kremena Stancheva,...Read More

Tzvetanka Varimezova

Bulgarian Singing

Tzvetanka Varimezova was born in Pazardzhik in Bulgarian Thrace, and started singing and playing accordion at age 9. She went on to master tambura and piano, and studied folk music at Kotel High...Read More

For the Kids

Tano Brock

Kids' Band

Tano Brock was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. At a young age, he began attending various music camps in California with his family, where he picked up his first instrument, doumbek. He...Read More

Frank Garcia and Julie Orth

Kids' Activities

Frank Garcia has taught dance to elementary and high-school students since 1994 and implemented dance programs at both McKinleyville High School and Sunset Elementary School of the Arts in...Read More

Eleni Govetas

Kids' Band

Eleni Govetas was born into the musical Govetas family and has been immersed in music since day one. She began performing on doumbek with her parents at the age of nine and has continued to add...Read More

Lily Storm

Singing for Kids

Lily Storm is a singer specializing in traditional music, with particular experience in Eastern European styles. She has studied with many traditional singers (Donka Koleva, Kremena Stancheva,...Read More

Getting to Mendocino

Mendocino Woodlands Camp One is in Jackson State Forest about 175 miles north of San Francisco, roughly 12 miles inland from the coastal town of Mendocino.

From the south, take Hwy 101 North to Cloverdale. Highway 101 bypasses Cloverdale, so take the Hwy 128 Fort Bragg/Mendocino exit (after a couple of Cloverdale exits). Some 60 miles later (twisty road, but gorgeous vineyard, redwood, and coastal scenery), take Hwy 1 North to Mendocino.

From the north (Oregon), take I-5 South to Grants Pass, then Hwy 199 to Crescent City. From there, take Hwy 101 South to Leggett. From there take Hwy 1 South (insanely twisty road to the coast, with the reward of breathtaking ocean views) to Mendocino.

From Mendocino, go east on Little Lake Road (Co. Rd. 408) from Hwy 1
(at stoplight) for 5.6 miles, then turn right on Co. Rd. 700 (winding dirt road). Drive for 4 miles to Camp One. Please drive slowly and carefully on this dusty road!

If you’ve never been to the Woodlands, plan to arrive before dark. Registration will be located just outside the dining hall.

Dine & Dance—Bed & Breakfast (for reference only)

Come for early evening activities, the dance party and the late night kafana. Then spend the night and enjoy breakfast before you hit the road!

Here’s how it works:

6:00 p.m.: Arrive at our lovely redwoods site (see Directions tab above). Check in at the Kafana and set up your bunk. Join us for a delicious dinner, starting at 6:30.

Then take in a folklore presentation, singalong, or join in our auction. Dancing to live music begins in the main hall generally around 9:00.

Our Kafana in the woods is a bar and a club, and a place where much music and merriment happens into the wee hours. Stay as long as you like!

Sleep in a bunk with the bedding you brought from home.

Roll out of bed, have breakfast by 9:30 a.m., and hit the trail by 10.

All this can be yours for $135. A cheap hotel in Ft. Bragg (forget the town of Mendocino), easily runs twice as much and provides no options for gajda, rakija, čočeks, or çiftetelli!

Evening Parties (for reference only)

Live in the area? Join us for a fabulous evening of live music and dancing.

Admission includes the evening dance party, a delicious complimentary evening snack, as well as late-night kafana activities until 2:30 a.m. No overnight accommodations are available for partygoers; please make sure you make provisions for getting home safely after the party (or consider registering for our B&B option above!).

Arrive anytime after 8 p.m. and pay the $35 per person fee at the Kafana. The dance party generally starts at 9 p.m. Please make your reservations by email two days before the first day of camp. It is also possible to attend the Friday Lamb Roast. The cost for this event is $50, and it includes dinner and the evening party (no overnight accommodations).