BOTMC Square Dance Party

Doors 7pm Clogging Workshop with Evie Ladin 7:30pm Square Dance Party & Song Circle hosted by Mark Olson & Penny Critchlow 8pm Old Time Jam led by Forty Drop Few 9pm Join us for the BOTMC Square Dance Party featuring: Joseph Decosimo, Stephanie Coleman & Friends Justin Robinson & Aaron Cooper Skillet Licorice And Callers Janine Smith, Evie Ladin Three acoustic bands pumping out music that makes you want to get up and dance, plus two callers who love to introduce the uninitiated to the fun of a square dance party, with the emphasis on “party”!! No dancing experience is needed, the callers will teach all dances from scratch and will call the moves all the way through. No need to bring a partner, although you can if you want. And same sex partners fit in fine. Joseph Decosimo is a multi-instrumentalist (fiddle, banjo, guitar, droney things) , singer, and leading interpreter and teacher of traditional music from Southern Appalachia, where he grew up and learned from the region’s last master musicians. Based in Durham, NC, Joseph is a National Old-time Banjo Champion, and blue ribbon winning fiddler. Hailing from the Chicago area, Stephanie Coleman was mentored from a young age by fiddle masters Lynn “Chirps” Smith, Rhys Jones, Steve Rosen, and Paul Tyler, with whom she explored not just the craft but also the rich history of traditional Appalachian and Midwestern fiddle music. Justin Robinson grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina. He played with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, thereby working to preserve traditional forms of music, to introduce new generations to musical legends like Joe Thompson, and to remind audiences that the fiddle was, historically, an African American instrument. He is joined by the newest member of Joe Thompson’s musical lineage, Aaron Cooper . Skillet Licorice is the latest project from San Francisco musicians Matt Knoth and Elise Engelberg. Essentially a musical consortium, Matt & Elise form the core of a lineup featuring many of California's most talented old-time musicians. At The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention Square Dance, Skillet Licorice will be performing with Allegra Thompson, Erik Pearson and Rowan McCallister. But whether they’re playing dance tunes, slinky blues, sparkling banjo breaks or dreamy waltzes, Skillet Licorice displays an impressive command of styles and techniques that comes from deep study and loving dedication to America’s folk traditions. Callers: The Janine Smith experience is what you get when you cross a howdy-ma’am-BBQ-and-beans Honky Tonk with Zoom dancing and sprinkle on some twinkly lights for sass. She loves calling FUN dances, squares, circles, longways sets, heck maybe a couple of Singing Squares, too. Her teaching is clear and to-the-point, though she has been known to goof around a bit. She’s one of the “Hot Square Babes,” a quintet of female callers who threw a monthly Square Dance Party in the DC area from 2004-2018, a founding member of the DC Square Dance Collective (2011) , and an organizer of the DC/Baltimore area annual Dare to Be Square Weekend. Evie Ladin wears many hats: banjo player, singer, songwriter, step-dancer, square dance caller. She grew up square dancing and clogging, but it was through hippie folk festivals and the Green Grass Cloggers, rather than super organized club dancing. She was inspired to try calling in order to give the musicians an outlet for fast, crooked tunes. Evie enjoys a certain amount of controlled chaos in the room, as she guides a group smoothly through dances without spending too much time teaching or focusing on “correctness”. As a performer, she tours internationally with the Evie Ladin Band and Keith Terry from her home base in Oakland. Find out more information about Berkeley Old Time Music Convention here: