40th Annual Door County Folk Festival
"Dancing through the Balkans & Eastern Europe to the Live Music of Izvor"
(Saturday, July 13th - 10:00am-11:30am - Baileys Harbor Town Hall)
Back | Home

Plan to attend this returning popular workshop offering at the 2019 Door County Folk Festival!
This has been a very popular workshop over the years!

Ethnic dance is any dance form which can be identified as originating with an ethnic culture and expressing the movement aesthetics of that culture. Folk dance requires not only an ethnic identification, but a participatory and aesthetic tradition.  Ethnic Folk Dance may be defined as dance that is an integral and anticipated behavior in a culture and is defined by the aesthetics of that culture whether rural or urban.  Members of the folk dance tradition would include village dances, national dances, ritual dances, social dances, and educational dances.

Dance through the Balkans and Eastern Europe to the Live Music of Izvor - Ethnic Dance Workshop:

  • Join us for this special treat and rare opportunity to learn and do dances from Poland and the south Balkan regions of Romania, Serbia, Vojvodina, Turkey, Macedonia and Bulgaria to the live music of Izvor.

  • This workshop will feature more fluid dance instruction and will include a good amount of dance material that will be accessible to newer dancers as well as some more challenging dance material that will be ideal for experienced dancers.

  • This session will also feature open dancing where participants will learn by doing (without instruction). This form of active learning will reinforce participants' experience of dancing material that Izvor will be playing at the Friday and Saturday evening dance parties.

  • The instructors will teach selected dances from the list of dance possibilities for this workshop on Page 4 of the EZ-Echedule-Grid.

  • When / Where:
    • Saturday 10:00am at Baileys Harbor Town Hall
    • Instructors: George Davis & Paul Collins
    • Live Music: Izvor


(Click to Enlarge Photo)

George Davis has been folk dancing since the days of the Great Society in the bright lights of Chicago and has learned dances from all of the legends: Crum, Palfi, David, Hebert, Moreau, Koenig, Filcich, Page, Czompo, Wixman, Ozkok, Drury, Mr. J. and Greene. George is a veteran of numerous performances at street fairs, ethnic festivals and picnics, and has danced for international, Turkish, Israeli, Romanian, Latvian and Hungarian folklore groups. Dance research has taken George to exotic locales such as Milan's Lounge, the Rafters, Vi & Coy's and Tulipanos Lada.

click for bio
(Click to Enlarge Photo)

Paul Collins began dancing with his parents at the age of eight and has been an ethnic folk dance leader & square/contra dance caller since high school. Paul has been a guest teacher and caller at dances from the North Country to the Deep South and has even called squares and taught folk dancing for the hearing impaired at Gallaudet University in Washington. DC. Paul led the University of Chicago Folk Dance Club for many years and introduced squares and contras into the group's repertoire. After directing the U of C Folk Dancers' Annual Fall "International Folk Festival" for twelve years, Paul joined Gerhard Bernhard in producing the Door County Folk Festival (www.dcff.net) and two years later became a festival co-director. Through Ethnic Dance Connection, Paul presents ethnic dance programs for students in elementary, middle and high schools, in colleges in universities, and in tutoring programs and scouting and community organizations.

click for a description
(Click to Enlarge Photo)

The "Izvor" Orchestra (tranlsation = fountain, source, spring, well) was formed in 1981. The "Izvor" orchestra has been one of the leading folk bands in the Milwaukee area for years with their wide range of tunes and varied sounds. They specialize in music from the Balkans, and have performed at numerous festivals throughout the Midwest and have performed at a Romanian festival in Regina Saskatchewan Canada. Izvor was the featured band for 15 years at the Milwaukee Holiday folk Fair and still hosts an after party Saturday nights of the Folk Fair in late November. Besides playing for International Folk Dance (IFD) events Izvor has performed for weddings and a multitude of commercial conventions in Milwaukee. Kenn Werner, Steve Petrovich, and Fred Melk are the 3 founding members. Today accordionist’s Nick Mladenovich and Vlade Rokvic join Izvor along with Harley Schoville on Drums. Many of Milwaukee’s leading accordionists have been guests with Izvor including Mujo Aliev, Tom Knack, Nick Bratkovich, Pero Momich, Ljupce Rankovic, Milan Kontich, and Ljubo Tanaskovic.

BOOKING INFO - Contact Fred Melk: 414-708-0184 or