|
Sharon Green
|
|
Sharon Green came to English Country Dancing as a non-dancing adult and knows what a challenge it can be for beginners. After her first contra dance, in May 1988 in Bar Harbor, Maine, Sharon felt "maybe I could learn how to do this." Then she "lucked out and got into English Week at Pinewoods Weekend that August." She first called a dance, Jack's Health, in June 1993, at Country Dancers of Westchester's Ice Cream Social, and by that fall she had begun apprenticing in Westchester and teaching in North Jersey.
As a novice caller, Sharon worked most closely with Christine Helwig and Fried de Metz Herman. Through the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) she took dance leadership classes with Bruce Hamilton, Gene Murrow, and Sue Salmons. She also traveled to England to attend the initial callers' module (led by Betty Chater, Wendy Crouch, Alan Davies, and Colin Hume) sponsored by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). Interested in performance dancing as well as social dance, Sharon helped found the now defunct Harpies Molly team and served, with Paul Ross, as co-director of Christine Helwig's Chelsea English Country Dancers demonstration team, with whom she began dancing in 1990.
She has taught at Northeast Music and Dance (NOMAD) in Connecticut, Heritage in Pennsylvania, the Dance Flurry in New York, Down East Festival in Maine, Mainewoods Dance Camp in Maine, New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA) in Massachusetts, San Francisco Free Folk Festival in California, Lark Camp in California, Bay Area Country Dance Society English Week in California, and Country Dance * New York's True Brit Weekend and Weekend Whirligig in New York. Sharon has also been a frequent visiting caller and teacher at dances on both coasts, and has taught at festivals and led workshops in Canada, the United Kingdom, and in Japan. Most recently she has served as program director of the BACDS's Fall Frolick English Weekend in California and of the Country Dance and Song Society's English Week at Pinewoods Camp in Massachusetts.
When she is not teaching or calling, Sharon dances regularly at BACDS and at Playford Balls from Seattle to Edinburgh. She edited the notes on English country dancing for two of Fried de Metz Herman's collections of dances, Ease and Elegance and Fringe Benefits.
Sharon currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, calling dances and balls from Victoria, British Columbia, to San Diego, California.
Dances Sharon has taught include Alice, An Early Frost, Bellamira, Chocolate Round O, Cockle Shells, Cottonwood, De'il Take the Warr, Fourpence Hapenny Farthing, Geud Man of Ballangigh, Hambleton's Round O, Handel with Care, Helena, Impertinence, Jack's Health, Jack's Maggot, Jaque Latin, Kelsterne Gardens, Knole Park, Lass of Richmond Hill, Leah's Waltz, Leather Lake House, Mad Robin, Madeira Dream, Midnight Ramble, Mr. Isaac's Maggot, Ore Boggy, Orleans Baffled, Peace Be with You, Portsmouth, Red and All Red, Rose of Sharon, Saint Margaret's Hill, Softly Good Tummas, Step Stately, Sunlight Through Draperies, The Chocolate Equation, The Pugilist, The Pursuit, The Two Cousins, Trip to the Manors, Wa' is Me What Mun I Do?, Well Hall, Whiskey Before Dinner, and Winter
Sharon's own original dances, which she also teaches, include Doctor Bending's Serpent, Familiar Quotations, Gene's Tambourine, and The Unknown Buccaneer.