Stanford International Dancers
Mountain View, California
Teachers and Performers
October–November–December 2009
Tineke van Geel is a well-known international dance teacher from the Netherlands specializing in Armenian dance. She has a passion for Armenian traditional dances and has been teaching them all over the world for more than 25 years. She has visited Armenia many times and has acquired a vast knowledge of the country and its culture, which she imparts during her dance teaching.
Armen Gabrielian began dancing with MIT Folk Dancers and continued dancing in Toronto and Southern California. He has been dancing in the Bay area since 1987. He has attended dance workshops in Armenia and Greece and has taught at Ashkenaz, Stanford Folk Dancers and special Armenian dance events.
Nina Kavardjikova was born in northern Bulgaria and was a professional dancer, touring the world as a principal dancer with the Bulgarian Trakia State Folk Ensemble. She is now a Bulgarian folklore and traditional dance instructor, choreographer, and researcher, with a particular interest in village dance and music.
Sviraci, featuring Jim Little (gajda, fiddle & tambura), Melissa Miller (kaval, vocals & percussion) and Lew Smith (tambura & percussion), plays Bulgarian and Macedonian music with a flair.
Da! Mozhem plays a wide range of tunes for your dancing pleasure. Its members are John Burke (accordion, tambura, vocals), Joyce Clyde (gadulka, vocals), Alan Moore (accordion, kaval), Barbara Saxton (vocals), Ginny Snyder (clarinet, tambura, accordion, brach, vocals), Rich Tucker (tambura, doumbek, tupan), and Shannon Wells (clarinet, guitar, vocals).
Caroline Simmonds has been an avid folk dancer since starting in Los Angeles in 1987. In 2001 she moved to Athens for three years, and now teaches dances from Greece and beyond at the San Francisco group Greek Feet.
Bill Cope is a well-known local musician renowned for his skill on several instruments, including tambura, accordion and gajda. He will be joined by other talented musicians playing Bulgarian, Macedonian and Greek dance music.
John Burke has danced in the Bay Area for over twenty years. He has been a frequent teacher at Mostly Balkan and Stanford Folk Dancers, specializing in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Romanian dances that are "too complicated to simply pick up."
Our All-Request Evenings, only one, on November 20 this quarter, are typically laid-back record hops, international FD style. We often have informal teaching (by request) on these evenings, and we always have fun.
Where to find us (and a fact or two):
Dance with us at Flex-It Aerobics Studio, 425 W. Evelyn Avenue, Mountain View, CA, Friday evenings from 8:00 to 11:00. We are located 3½ blocks east of Castro Street, immediately past Minton’s Hardware and Lumber. The studio is air-conditioned.
For your convenience, here is a link to an interactive map of our location.
Please be aware that we do dances at all skill levels throughout the evening, and we welcome dancers at all levels from beginning to advanced.
Admission is $6 on regular nights and $8 to $12 on live music and special workshop nights. Call Ginny at (408)733-5529 for information.
Our dance list is now available for your perusal (it is a PDF file and is about 22 pages long).
No hard-soled street shoes, please. Dance with soft-soled shoes or dance shoes that you wear only indoors.
For the comfort and safety of our members, we reserve the right to refuse admission to anyone.
Questions? E-mail me at the following address:
For the schedule in the form of an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, click on Stanford flier. View it, save it, or even print it at home.
Clicking on the URL might set you up to download the file or to view the file, depending on your browser settings. If you need to, you can download the Acrobat reader for free from the Adobe web site.
Link to a text
version of this schedule.