Callers (2024)
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Gaye Fifer
Gaye Fifer hasn't stopped dancing since she found contras in 1979. Introduced to the community in St. Louis, she has found dancing wherever she goes. Gaye learned to call contras in Charlottesville, VA and has been traveling to call and dance for the past 25 years. We call Gaye “the soul of the Whirl” because she has called every year since FOOTMAD started the weekend in 2005.
Whether she’s calling contras, squares, waltz or English Country Dance—another of her specialties—Gaye’s instructions are clear and concise, a talent that comes naturally because she was a teacher by profession. Gaye has been described (not by us, although we would agree) as “the best waltz teacher in the country.
Gaye has called and taught at dance weekend throughout the US and overseas, and delights dancers with her clear walk-throughs and smooth-flowing contras. She is currently President of Country Dance and Song Society and has a passionate interest in supporting dance community leaders and organizers.
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Janine Smith
The Janine Smith EXPERIENCE is what you get when you cross a howdy-ma'am-BBQ-and-beans Honky Tonk with Zoom contra and sprinkle on some twinkly lights for sass.
She'll bring you a night of fun dances, from contras to squares, heck maybe a Singing Square, whether you're sitting, standing, or somewhere in between. Her teaching is clear and to-the-point, though she has been known to goof around a bit.
She brings the party, whether it's to a local Barn Dance, or to a dance weekend in the US, or internationally. Favorite food: Coffee, Superpower: "Reading the room" wherever dancers are ready to whoop it up!
Janine is from Washington, DC, and this will be her Whirl calling debut.
Bands (2024)
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Hot Coffee Breakdown
Driven by traditional and original tunes from Tom Cunningham's fiddle, and powered by the Latin and rock rhythms of Kate Sanders on keyboard and Luis de Leon on percussion and harmonica, Hot Coffee Breakdown brings a refreshingly wide variety of contra dance music to energize the dance floor.
Hailing from Louisville, KY, for the past 7 years this versatile trio have excited dancers from New Jersey to Florida, and west to Chicago and St. Louis; and worked with top callers like Gaye Fifer, Seth Tepfer, Diane Silver and Darlene Underwood.
Hot Coffee Breakdown promises to caffeinate your dancing!
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Brazenkeys
Eric Schedler plays accordion, banjo and piano for contra and English country dancing with Midwest-based bands the Cosmic Otters and Supertrad. With his playing firmly rooted in traditional Irish music, Eric has performed and taught at camps and festivals around the country, and currently serves as program director of CDSS's Cascade of Music and Dance and the all-ages Cumberland Dance Week, a project of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation, of which Eric is also a member of the board of directors.
Tadhg Ó Meachair, a graduate of the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick, has established himself as a force in the world of traditional Irish music with an All-Ireland piano title among his various awards for piano, piano accordion, and accompaniment. A founding member of the multi-award-winning bands Goitse and One for the Foxes, he has performed on stages across four continents, from Ireland’s National Concert Hall to Music Crossroads in Zambia, and from the Festival Interceltique de Lorient to a garden party hosted by Uachtarán an hÉireann, the President of Ireland.
Joanna Hyde (fiddle and vocals) grew up in a musical family and has travelled throughout North America and Europe to perform and to teach at workshops and festivals. Beginning with classical music, Joanna expanded into other styles including Irish, Texas swing, bluegrass, and Americana/folk, along with Irish and Cape Breton step dance. In 2011, Joanna was selected as one of ten U.S. scholars to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Graduate Arts Award. She moved to Ireland to pursue an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, graduating in 2014.