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FiddleKicks performers
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Annsley Hillman “Hey
Ya'll!” Annsley is originally from Atlanta, GA. When
she moved to Philadelphia she decided to pick up a winter
sport. Knowing she loved live fiddle tunes, she thought she
would try her hand (feet?) at clogging. She has found her
passion among wonderful friends in Appalachian style clogging. |
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Bill Quern is a dance musician
and has played for FiddleKicks since 2003. His father filled
the house with instruments for his 10 siblings to explore,
so Bill developed into a multi-instrumentalist. Fiddle, banjo,
concertina, mandolin, harmonica and bodhran became his selection
as an adult. He has a degree in Fine Arts from MA College
of Art where he studied performance, sculpture and instrument
making. He plays for Contra and Square dances, English Country
dances, teaches Morris dancing (at Saint Peter's School in
Philadelphia) and Scandinavian dancing. He dances with Kingsessing
Morris Men (7 time winners in the Philadelphia Mummer's Parade)
and plays for English Rapper and Longsword dance teams. Other
performances include; Enscaded Festival in Holland, on Chinese
television, the New England Folk Festival, the Butterball
Dance Festival, and the Heritage Dance Festival. |
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Evann Gastaldo started
clogging in California as a teenager in the 1990s, eventually
joining and performing with an exhibition team of precision
cloggers that also combined a number of other styles of
dance in its choreography. After drifting away from the
dance community after college, she met her future husband,
moved to Pennsylvania where he grew up, and got married.
In 2011, realizing how much she missed dancing, and looking
for a way to get more involved around her new home and make
friends, she found FiddleKicks and has been having a great
time ever since!
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Gabby Franken
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Kathy Talvitie made her dance
debut at the age of five as a tap dancing starfish. Dancing
and playing music have filled her life with joy ever since.
Her path as a dancer has led her to ballet, tap, international
and modern dance. For the past 20 years she has been active
in the Delaware Valley Contra Dance and English Country Dance
community as a dancer, musician and composer. In addition
to playing guitar with the band Raise the Roof, she plays
piano with Hold the Mustard and A Joyful Noise. “After
playing for just one FiddleKicks performance I knew it was
time to dust off those tap shoes." |
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Kari D'Amore
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Kristina Peacock joined
FiddleKicks in 2010. She comes from a background of ballet,
jazz, and tap. After taking a break from dance to get her
engineering degree, her good friend Donna, a clogger from
NY, introduced her to clogging. Realizing that she really
missed having dance in her life, she sought out the Fiddlekicks
for lessons and quickly became a member of the group. Since
then, she has danced in several shows and really enjoys
being a part of the FiddleKicks
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Pat McGrath, former co-director,
joined FiddleKicks in 1998. With extensive tap training as
a child, it wasn’t long after joining the group that
she began collaborating with Peggy to lead and develop FiddleKicks,
especially artistically. Pat expanded FiddleKicks repertoire
with gumboot, body percussion and advanced Cape Breton dancing.
She has studied dance at Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia
for Appalachian Clogging and Flatfooting, Pinewoods in Massachusetts,
The Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts, Cape Breton,
the Swannanoa Gathering and an independent study dance class
at Penn State Abington. |
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Peggy Leiby, director, was
a founding member of FiddleKicks in 1996. Upon assuming a
leadership role in 1998, she envisioned that FiddleKicks could
be taken from its informal community dance roots to a quality
performance troupe, whether in a concert setting or community
hoedown. She has extensive experience in the Philadelphia
folk dance and music community as an events organizer and
dance performer in various forms of dance, and thrives in
developing concepts for events and outreach programs. She
brings skills of her past experience as a co-owner of a magazine
publishing company to her passion and drive for traditional
dance and music. Besides spending as much time dancing as
she can, she is a co-founder and organizer of Mostly
Waltz, teaches waltzing and other couple dances, plays
recorders & concertina in a number of ensembles &
bands (for early music and contra
& English
country dances), handles bookings for Simple
Gifts and manages phillydance.com. |
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Rebecca Faye Powers grew up in a house
filled with traditional music and dance. Departing from the
folk tradition, Rebecca pursued a career in ballet and modern
dance, performing with Dance Matrix and the Russian Ballet
Theatre of Delaware. Returning to her roots, Rebecca now plays
old-time banjo and performs in a variety of percussive folk
styles. She received extensive training under Eileen Carson-Schatz
and Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, becoming a principal
dancer with the touring company. Rebecca is a performing member
of Fiddlekicks in Philadelphia and a teacher/choreographer
for the City Stompers in NYC. |
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Sarah
Gowan was raised in a household where art, music,
dance, and performance were as much a part of daily life as
breakfast. Some of her earliest memories are of the lively
old-time fiddle music and spontaneous clogging sessions in
the yard of her great-grandmother's house nestled in the Smokey
Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. A performer at the
age of six; she studied piano, cello, singing, and ballet.
She fell in love with the stage when, in a local production
of Oliver!, she was given a one line solo because she could
sing louder than the rest of the 80 kids in the cast. In her
teens, Sarah rediscovered the traditional music of her youth,
leading her to international, square and contra dancing. Sarah
also performs with Mixed Pickles Vintage Dancers, plays guitar
and English concertina with several dance bands, teaches traditional
couple dancing, and composes the occasional tune. She lives
with her two terrific teenagers, Garrett and Emma, who almost
never complain about the clogging, squeezeboxes, and banjos,
although the cats often do. |
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Sarah Thomas joined FiddleKicks
in 2005 when she was ten years old. She performs various dancing
styles in the troupe’s repertoire, including Appalachian
Clogging, English Waltz & Sword, South African gumboot
and Cape Breton. Sarah came to FiddleKicks after five years
of classical ballet. She also enjoys the violin, piano, cooking,
and soccer. Sarah has been homeschooled since kindergarten. |
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Susan
Anderson is an active dancer, singer, musician,
as well as organizer in Philly’s international folk
dance community. As the leader of the International
Folk Sounds orchestra, she sings and plays many instruments
including gaida (bagpipe), balalaika, violin and tambura.
She is currently President of the Folk Dance Council of the
Delaware Valley, a docent at the Elmwood
Park Zoo and on staff at Mainewoods
Dance Camp. Susan performs with Svitanya,
a women’s a cappella ensemble that specializes in the
music of Eastern Europe, and runs the weekly
Beaver Folk Dance group group. “FiddleKicks is a
blast!!” |
Artist Roster
We tailor our shows to best meet the needs of an audience and
participants by choosing from a pool of guest artists to present
the most suitable entertainment.
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Bill
Dooley has been a perennial favorite in the Philadelphia
folk music scene since the 1970s. In addition to his skills
on guitar, banjo, and harmonica, he is a warm, engaging singer
with “A talent for reaching into his vast repertoire
of traditional and vintage songs to pull out an unknown gem.”
(City Paper). Bill is highly regarded for his arrangements
of jazz and popular standards for solo guitar as well as Hawaiian
“slack-key” guitar. He is an adept songwriter,
skilled old-timey musician, and is known for his unique repertoire
of songs and tunes “from the hills and Bob Wills to
doo-wah-ditty and back to the city.” |
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Ellie Grace: Singer, multi-instrumentalist,
songwriter, and percussive dancer, Ellie grew up traveling
across North America performing professionally as part of
her family band and now carries on her family's musical tradition,
touring and teaching nationally and internationally (frequently
with her sister, Leela)! Ellie has done extensive recording
and studio work and several years ago released a celebrated
CD with her sister. Not long ago, Ellie left Columbia, Missouri,
where she was running her own school of music and dance and
headed east to her new home in the mountains of Western North
Carolina. Recent years finds her performing as a member of
The Dirk Powell Band, being on faculty as a percussive dance
instructor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville
and touring overseas. website |
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Jane Rothfield |
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Jo Wright is the Director
of Alive
& Kicking, based in Exeter, Devon. Formed in 1989,
A&K performs music and dance at folk festivals and events
throughout the UK from the Appalachian Mountain region of
the USA. Based on the traditional steps of Appalachian clogging,
A&K have developed their own distinctive and exciting
style of Appalachian clog dance, using dances choreographed
by members of the team. In 2003 the group visited Philadelphia
as guests of FiddleKicks, who made a return visit to the UK
in 2004. Since then, Jo has returned to the USA regularly
as a guest performer with FiddleKicks in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania
and West Virginia. Back at home, Jo provides foot percussion
for the Old Porch Band, an Exeter based string band performing
American and UK music, and also performs solo flatfooting
and Cape Breton step dancing at folk clubs in the area. |
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Laura Robertson |
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Mat Clark |
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Steve Hickman & John Devine
are seasoned dance and performance musicians from VA &
WV in the Washington, DC area. Both have been members of popular
traveling bands and are in great demand as a performance duo.
These folks know mountain, old time, folk, and swing music
AND how to work together to create a spirited and "with
it" sound. Steve is an unsurpassed fiddler renowned for
his driving energy, superb
hambone, and great humor. John plays crisp back-up guitar
that invites dancing, toe-tapping and singing along. |
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Rik Bourne plays fiddle, melodeon,
harmonica and guitar. He is a member of folk music trio, The
Coyotes (with Bill Dooley and Wendi Bourne), and is also the
musician for The Kingsessing Morris Men. When not playing
with his regular groups, Rik can be found playing at square
dances with his wife, Wendi, and as a dance musician in other
bands. Rik’s performances include The Philadelphia Folk
Festival, The Philadelphia Mummer’s Parade, and a Tour
of England with the Kingsessing Morris Dancers. |
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Rusty Neithammer started playing
old-time music on the fiddle while in college in the 1970’s,
after hearing it on radio station WXPN, at the Philly Folk
Festival, and at some southern fiddle contests. Over the years,
he also took up the mandolin and guitar. Soon after college,
he was drafted to dance with the Mill Creek Cloggers. Rusty’s
playing has been strongly influenced by the fiddling and banjo
playing of Tommy Jarrell. Besides playing in various band
configurations for Fiddlekicks, Rusty plays fiddle with the
Bow Rockers, an old-time band based in the Philadelphia area.
He also plays guitar with the Cliffhangers, who have recently
released a series of CD recordings. |
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Tom Schaffer has been playing
guitar, bass, or fiddle in the old-time music scene regularly
for close to forty years, playing dances, jamming and joining
up with many many pickup bands at down-south festivals. There
have also been some forays into more organized settings, as
guitar player with power trio, the Sly Dogs alongside Mark
Simos and Michael Gallagher; and with The Amazing Rhythm Kings
including Bob Carlin, Ernest Tedino and Sol Kohen. Tom has
also been found occasionally in collusion with The Hix, The
Sandia Hots and The Piedmont Pepsteppers.Recently retired
from teaching, there's more time for music now; in addition
to FiddleKicks appearances, Tom currently plays bass with
Run Of The Mill Stringband
and with The Bow Rockers, both solid old time dance bands. |
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Wendi Bourne plays guitar
and sings. She is a member of swing bands Girls
from Mars and Swing City as well as The Coyotes. She is
the coordinator for a week-long music & dance “camp”,
Swing Week at Augusta. She has been playing for square dances
with Rik since their marriage in 1978. She has taught guitar
and voice at numerous music camps, and has performed at The
Annenberg Center, The Philadelphia Folk Festival, Bethlehem
Musikfest and at swing dances up and down the east coast. |
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