2024 Dance Workshops

This is a family event with dances and songs for kids, people of all ages and skill levels are welcome, no experience necessary to have fun. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

What is a Family Dance?

Live Music: Think fiddles, guitars, keys, even a banjo or accordion; all from great local bands!

Learn as you dance: A "caller" teaches and leads each dance. No prior experience is necessary to have fun at every age!

Community Focus: Family dance creates a shared fun and safe environment for all, including kids of all ages and families of all kinds. Bring your friends or make some new ones. This family dance is put on every third Saturday by FolkMADS.

Questions? Check out folkmads.org for more and sign up for the Family Dance Newsletter

Erik Erhardt (Abq, NM) calls contra and English, instructs couples dance, and organizes dance in New Mexico, traveling widely for dancing and community building. In his engaging and entertaining manner, Erik’s teaching is encouraging, clear, and detailed giving all an opportunity to gain a sense of mastery at each person’s level while having something to gain for everyone.

The Albuquerque Megaband is an open acoustic band that plays for each 3rd Saturday contra dance in ABQ. Since its beginnings in the early 1980s it has provided a place for experienced musicians and those just starting out to play together at FolkMADS dances, workshops, and occasionally other events.

Discover this traditional American folk dance in long lines down the dance hall. Contra dances are social, providing opportunities for people to dance together and connect joyfully to the music. All dances are taught, and beginners are welcome and encouraged.

Every Saturday you can enjoy contra and traditional community dancing with the New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society (FolkMADS). Dances are in Albuquerque on the 1st Saturday of each month, and on 2nd and 4th Saturdays they are in Santa Fe. See www.folkmads.org for more information.

The New Mexico Callers Collective's vision is to build a stronger sense of caller community in New Mexico. The NMCC focuses on a range of caller skills each month, as well as how to collectively improve our community skills at attracting and retaining new dancers while continuing to encourage excitement in our experienced dancers. We see community as key, a community of callers (and musicians and organizers) in support of the community of dancers. We are focusing on using non-gendered methods of calling.

The Adobe Brothers are Jacoby Adobe (Jimmy Abraham) - vocals, guitar, harmonica: Pierogi Adobe (Terry Bluhm) - vocal, bass; Moby Adobe (Wayne Shrubsall) - vocals, banjo, guitar; Toby Adobe (Bruce Thomson) - vocals, fiddle

The Adobe Brothers is a band comprised of identical quadruplets born to different mothers a long time ago who came together to play music as a band in 1979. Their initial musical preference consisted of Old Timey fiddle music, Bluegrass, and folk music of North America, but has subsequently expanded to include Western Swing, Celtic, blues, Klezmer and whatever else might be fun to play. The Brothers refer to their music as “International Bluegrass” and proclaim themselves the progenitors of this genre.

Their fundamental musical philosophy is “if it’s fun and sounds good, we’ll play it.” Their song/tune list has over 200 titles in it and during a concert they’ll often draw from hundreds of other pieces that they forgot to add to the list.

A lively Irish hoedown with round, line and square figures danced to reels 'n jigs 'n hornpipe music. Ceili (K-lee) dances are simple, mildly aerobic and no partner is needed. We dance 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 16 hand dances in round, square and line formations. The lively music - which makes your feet want to dance - are reels, jigs, polkas and hornpipes.

Traditional Irish Ceili folk dance classes for beginners - teen to adult - are held on Wednesday evenings 6:30 - 8pm at the Edelweiss German-American Club, 4821 Menaul NE. These classes have been on going in Albuquerque since 1985. IT'S FUN - Join us...

Duke City Ceili Band is a group of friends from the local Irish session scene: Harlow Pinson, Jim Crowley, Phil Gaudette, Grace Broadhead, Chris Carilli, Jessy Stone, Lucy Wang, Elsa Goosen, and Cleve Sharp. We formed to play dance music for ceilis and added singing shanties for our concert events. Find out more at our Facebook page

This workshop will explore western traditional square dancing for everyone. These accessible dances will be taught so no one will be left out. You won't need any experience to try a little do-si do; everyone's welcome. Come and have a good time! Live music.

Kris Jensen has been calling modern western square dances since 1991. She calls four local dances each week, has called numerous dances and weekends around the United States, and has been on staff at several national conventions. She has also called traditional squares and contras for NM FolkMADS.

The North Valley Tune Tanglers perform a spicy mix of tunes and songs from old Appalachia to New Mexico and beyond. The trio brings together many years of musical experience, and is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Liz Stevens and Michael Gallagher started the band as an outgrowth of their work with the Sandia Hots, a popular Albuquerque band that was on the scene from the late 1990s to 2010. Liz Stevens (fiddle, vocals, percussion), played fiddle and sang with a trio in western North Carolina in the 1980s. She honed her dance fiddling style around Denver in the 1990s. Michael Gallagher (5-string and tenor banjos, fiddle, button accordion, guitar, vocals) developed his chops playing around the Mid-Atlantic states while living in Philadelphia in the 1970s and 80s. Mike and Liz have traveled widely in Mexico and grew to love the tight vocal harmonies of the traditional music there. Skip Wrightson (guitar, resonator guitar, percussion, vocals) is the Tanglers newest member. He hails from the South and has been influenced musically by bluegrass, blues and old time music from that region. He has played guitar since high school and picked up the resonator guitar (dobro) since living in New Mexico.

In addition to covers of early country music and the occasional original song, each Tune Tanglers show includes Southwestern and Mexican selections. They often end their performances with an old familiar sing-along. The Tanglers have performed at festivals, town concerts, ski lodges, coffee houses, assisted living facilities, and brew pubs. During the Covid era, they performed virtually from their living room in the North Valley.

The Parson Sisters is a duo based in Albuquerque, NM, specializing in global folk dance music, including Balkan, Irish, contra, and English Country. Comprised of Mirinisa Stewart-Tengco (strings, vocals, percussion) and Clara Byom (keys, clarinets, vocals, electronics), The Parson Sisters have quickly become sought-after dance musicians throughout the Southwest. In a few busy years, they have performed at over 60 events, including FolkMADness, Southwest Pickers Bluegrass and Traditional Music Festival, Albuquerque Folk Festival, Phoenix English Country Tea Dance, Tarab Retreat, dance parties, private events, and four out-of-state tours. From tight vocal harmonies in traditional Macedonian lesnotos to Clara’s charming original tunes to Mirinisa’s exquisite Scandinavian fiddling to psychedelic techno contra, The Parson Sisters provide the most eclectic collection of dance music in the Southwest.

Teaching dances of the 1840's in Colorado and New Mexico (waltzes, polkas, schottisches, redondos, cuadrillas).

Over the years, we have been fortunate to play traditional 1840's New Mexico and Southern Colorado Hispanic music. Also, we have been teaching the dances of the 1840's in Colorado and New Mexico (waltzes, polkas, schottisches, redondos, cuadrillas). Our family of elders have given of themselves so that we could continue age-old traditions of music and dance presentation and preservation. The musicians are truly masters of their style, genre and repertoire. In recent years, we have been fortunate to travel internationally on concert tours to Italy, Peru, and Baja California, Mexico.

Lorenzo Trujillo is the director of the Southwest Musicians. He was awarded the 1996 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, acknowledging his work as a folk violinist, guitarist, and vocalist, among his other accomplishments as a musician, ethnic dancer, folklorist, arts administrator, and culture bearer for approximately five decades. He was awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Arts as a performing artist. He was awarded the Hilos Culturales Distinguished Traditional Folk Artist Premio for his lifetime contributions to the traditional Hispanic traditions of Southern Colorado and New Mexico.

Dr. Trujillo has presented thousands of concerts, lecture demonstrations, and has published extensively in the area of traditional music and dance of the Southwest United States over the past 50 years. He has recorded and performed for television, radio and on numerous CDs. He was inducted into the Colorado Chicano Music Hall of Fame and he was presented with the Tesoro Cultural Center's Tesoro de Cro Award.

Members of the Southwest Musicians include William "Billy" Archuleta from Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. He has both recorded traditional music and was awarded the Hilos Culturales Distinguished Traditional Folk Artist Premio for his lifetime contributions to the traditional Hispanic traditions of Southern Colorado and New Mexico. Larry Edelman is a violinist with the Southwest Musicians. He is a nationally noted fiddler and dance caller of traditional music. He has performed on numerous recordings and throughout the U.S., reflecting a broad spectrum of traditional music of the United States. Also, playing with the group are Scott Mathis and Linda Askew. They come from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their lifetime of music is reflected in thousands of performances across the United States presenting folk traditions of Americana with a focus on the Southwest. Ben Alires has a lifetime of performance of traditional music having learned from his family in Colonias (Las Vegas), New Mexico. Cathy Skokan has played violin with the Southwest Musicians over the past fifteen years. Dancers: Virginia Ortiz and Ben Guerrero are well known traditional dance performers in New Mexico and Colorado.They are favorites of audiences for their enthusiastic dance drama and quick steps.

The Southwest Musicians began as a family troupe of three generations including his aunt, Eva Nuanez, father, Filbert Trujillo, son Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo, Jr., and The Southwest Dancers directed by his mother, Orie Trujillo. Since 1976, the group performed in numerous venues throughout the Southwest United States. As the older generation retired, new members joined the group to continue the traditions of the 1840's of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico. Members have roots in New Mexico and in Southern Colorado. Their performances have included such venues as Crested Butte Music Festival, Old Bent's Fort, The Chicano Music Festival, The Fort, The Spanish Market, Taos City Auditorium, Santa Fe Fiestas, The San Luis Fiestas, Chile Harvest Festival, Denver Civic Theatre, concerts in Rome, Italy, Lima, Peru, and San Felipe, Baja California and many others. The group has released numerous CD’s over these years of old-time dance tunes that were popular in the early period of Colorado and New Mexico. Their music has been handed down through many generations of family musicians who have taught their music by ear and practice.

The waltz taught in this workshop is the popular progressive waltz, not the ballroom box step. It is a smooth dance that travels counter clockwise around the dance floor. Waltz is the simplest of couple dances; the basic step fits the measures of the music and close contact between partners makes lead-follow skills easy. As we dance, we’ll learn some basics and a few showy moves and a bit of the waltz's fascinating history.

The waltz morphed from an old 13th century German folk dance and reared its scandalous head as a ballroom dance in France in the late 1700s (the "shameless, indecent whirling-dance of the Germans "that broke all the bounds of good breeding," from a novel in 1771). European high society held out against waltz on moral grounds due to the new closed hold and dizzying movements (“We remarked with pain that the indecent foreign dance called the waltz was introduced at the English Court on Friday last. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses we did not think it deserving of notice, but now that it is attempted to be forced on the respectable classes of society, we feel it our duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion." Times of London, 1816)

The antagonism only served to increase the popularity of the waltz and the bourgeoisie took it up with enthusiasm. Reportedly, the first time the waltz was danced in the United States was at an exhibition by a dancing master in Boston in 1834. Social leaders were aghast at what they called an undisguisedly licentious dance. A contemporary book of etiquette said “The waltz is a dance of quite too loose a character and unmarried ladies should refrain from it. Very young married ladies may be allowed to waltz if it is very seldom." Yet the waltz’s popularity spread in the states, especially following the Civil War, despite religious leaders and dance masters themselves stating that “the liberties taken in the dance could hardly be safe” and that “no woman could waltz without being ‘improperly aroused”. Waltz became firmly established in United States society such that between 1900 and 1920, a typical dance program was three quarter waltzes and one quarter all other dances combined.

Instructor Donna Howell has taught historic and modern couple dances for over 25 years. She currently teaches at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center in Santa Fe, produces a show of dance music on Santa Fe Public Radio KSFR 101.1 FM and can be reached at donna_jhowell@hotmail.com.

The songs of Glorieta Pines are inspired by the happenings of the world as seen through the lens of the American Southwest.

The trio, comprised of Brian Nelson (guitars), Lindsay Taylor (mandolin, fiddle) and Karina Wilson (fiddle), combines insightful songwriting and textured arrangements with tight vocal harmonies to achieve their unique blend of acoustic music.

Hailing from the Northern New Mexican towns of Glorieta and Santa Fe, each of the three members of Glorieta Pines has been making music with a variety of artists and bands for years. The Glorieta Pines project originated in 2020 as a duo between spouses Lindsay Taylor and Brian Nelson, with early performances including official virtual concerts for both the Brighton Fringe and Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2021.

The addition of Karina Wilson on fiddle in June of 2022 saw the polished arrangements and vocal harmonies of the duo format expand, with extended instrumental sections and deeper sonic textures, carrying Glorieta Pines’ original songs to new heights.

Line and circle dances from Europe, especially the Balkans and the Near East, with quickie teachings by Bill Croft, Carol Toffaleti & Patsy Gregory for beginners.

Rumelia Collective is a group of musicians who love playing the music of the Balkans and Mideast, as well as many other musical styles from around the world. The group weaves an intricate and mesmerizing blend of contemporary and traditional folk elements in their sultry arrangements of Balkan, Roma, Turkish and Greek music. Originally founded in 2010, Rumelia Collective has expanded their collaborations to include many internationally renowned musicians, bringing forth modern instrumentation in traditional tunes of the Balkan peninsula with finesse and style.

"Rumelia" comes from the word "Rumeli" meaning "Land of the Romans," a Turkish word used to describe the Southern Balkan region. The music is unique to the western ear in that it uses odd time signatures (5/8, 7/8, 9/8, and 11/8), close harmonies, as well as eastern scales (maqamat) and tonalities. Rumelia Collective's core repertoire is derived from traditional and popular tunes of Albania, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria, to name a few.

Ballet Folklórico Fiesta Mexicana, Inc. (Fiesta Mexicana) organized following the loss of founder and longtime Director, Maestro Miguel Caro Zaragoza, to provide continuity of his legacy and many decades of teaching Mexican Folk Dance in the community. Since 2014, Fiesta Mexicana has partnered with the South Broadway Cultural Center, City of Albuquerque, Cultural Services Department, to provide access to cultural awareness and dance education to the community by participating in many of the City sponsored cultural events and providing low cost Youth Folklórico Fiesta Mexicana classes for six weeks during the summer. Fiesta Mexicana’s dance presentations and costumes are unique, creative and incomparable. The costumes are noted for their beautiful and intricate designs. All costumes are Miguel’s creations and were handmade and hand embroidered by Miguel and his sister Beatriz Caro Zaragoza. Fiesta Mexicana’s dance repertoire consists of dances from almost all the states of Mexico and a set of Aztec dances. The dancing consists of intricate footwork and has been described as poetry in motion.

This workshop will enable attendees to perform basic Mexican Folk dance moves. Participants will be taught footwork for dances originating from the northern region of Mexico and discover a brief history about them.

Alma Arango has been dancing since age five. To improve her folkórico technique, she became a student of and later performed with Maestro Miguel Caro and Fiesta Mexicana in 1996. Alma has since taught dance classes at several local public schools, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the South Broadway Cultural Center. Today, Alma serves as an instructor and choreographer for Ballet Folklórico Fiesta Mexicana, Inc. (BFFM), which was founded in 2014 following the passing of Maestro Miguel Caro. BFFM is a multi-generational performing dance group in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offering classes for students ages 5 to adult.

Come and learn the basic hand, foot, and body movements that gracefully entwine to tell stories of Hawaii’s history, places, people and traditions… all infused with the spirit of Aloha. Hawaii’s beautiful, joyous cultural dance is suitable for everyone and every age. Native Hawaiian teacher.

The grace and beauty of the hula - Hawaii's art and soul, is alive and well in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Under the direction of Hawaiian native Cindi Kealaulaʻulaʻulaokawaoʻone Heffner, Haʻaheo O Hawaiʻi (which means Proud to Be Hawaiian) provides a wonderful taste of aloha through the hula (dance), oli (chant), and mele (song) of Hawaii. Come and experience the happiness and joy of hula.

Indian classical dancing started around 200 BCE in India. Traditionally performed as an expressive drama-dance form Indian classical dance also has intricate footwork that accompanies the stories. All styles of Indian classical dance are vibrant and expressive. The workshop will explore hand gestures used to communicate the stories, main characters in the dance forms, rhythmic patterns used and simple footwork.

Trupthi Panickor, the Creative Director of Natyakalanjali, is a professionally trained Indian classical dancer in all the south Indian classical dance styles and the traditional theatrical art forms of Kerala, such as Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniyattam, and Kathakali. Trupthi started dancing at age 4, and has performed across India and the world. She received the Creative Bravos award in 2019 from the Mayor and City of Albuquerque.

If you've watched Pride and Prejudice on TV or seen Sense and Sensibility or Emma at the movies, you have seen English Country dancing. People love English Country dancing because of the hauntingly beautiful music, the grace & elegance as you glide through the moves, and the fleeting connections and flirtations between you, your partner, and the other dancers. Learn these easy but elegant dances, flirt with your partner, channel your inner king or queen, and pretend you are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy!

The Parson Sisters is a duo based in Albuquerque, NM, specializing in global folk dance music, including Balkan, Irish, contra, and English Country. Comprised of Mirinisa Stewart-Tengco (strings, vocals, percussion) and Clara Byom (keys, clarinets, vocals, electronics), The Parson Sisters have quickly become sought-after dance musicians throughout the Southwest. In a few busy years, they have performed at over 60 events, including FolkMADness, Southwest Pickers Bluegrass and Traditional Music Festival, Albuquerque Folk Festival, Phoenix English Country Tea Dance, Tarab Retreat, dance parties, private events, and four out-of-state tours. From tight vocal harmonies in traditional Macedonian lesnotos to Clara’s charming original tunes to Mirinisa’s exquisite Scandinavian fiddling to psychedelic techno contra, The Parson Sisters provide the most eclectic collection of dance music in the Southwest.

Teaching line and circle dances from Europe, especially the Balkans and the Near East.

Tarjama, which means "Translation" in Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi, plays hot global grooves with clarinet, percussion and strings. Our jams include flamenco, Balkan, and Golden Age of Cairo tunes for your listening and dancing pleasure. Music that moves you!