Your Dance Mistress: Susan de Guardiola
Susan de Guardiola is an internationally-renowned dance historian and teacher who will be teaching our workshop and leading the dancing at the ball. She has taught historical and modern social dancing across the USA as well as in Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, and Ukraine and will be guiding us expertly through the dances of the Victorian and Colonial eras!

Your Musicians: Spare Parts: Liz Stell, Bill Matthiesen, and Eric Buddington
Liz Stell and Bill Matthiesen have been researching, recording, and performing all types of dance music: contra and English country, 19th century and ragtime, waltzes and couples dances, tangos and milongas for more than 25 years. They’ve played for concerts, contradances, Mostly Waltz events, milongas, and Victorian and other period events in over 20 states and provinces. Their CDs of nineteenth century dance music include The Civil War Ballroom, Returning Heroes, The Regency Ballroom, and Dancing by the Shore. They typically perform as a trio with one of a variety of “spare parts”.

Eric Buddington switches effortlessly between fiddle and violin. He excels at Argentine tangos, waltzes and milongas; he also joins Spare Parts for Regency balls, Ragtime balls and English country dances as well as contras and concerts. He performed with Spare Parts on The Regency Ballroom and Returning Heroes CDs. Formerly (and occasionally still) with the Flying Garbanzos, Eric also performs with several other ensembles.