Teachers
Charlottesville International Folk Dance strives to provide a welcoming atmosphere for everyone interested in the art and dances of cultures around the world. Meet the teachers below!
Sue Chase
Sue's first exposure to folk dance occurred as a young child watching ethnic dance at cultural centers in Boston, MA. Interest was re-kindled at college in southern California where Sue joined a folk dance class taught by enthusiastic and knowledgeable students at the nearby California Institute of Technology. This proved to be the impetus for taking other classes and workshops from teachers of international folk dance, folk culture, history and ethnic music, first in the Boston/Cambridge area and later in New York.
Sue attended and taught folk dances for seventeen years on Long Island and since 1989 has been co-teaching with Susan Oberman in Central Virginia. She has found folk dancing to be an enjoyable way for families and people of all ages to learn more about music and dance from diverse cultures. Sue promotes folk dancing as a beneficial form of exercise, a source of fun, and true to its long history and by its very nature, an activity that builds community.
Susan Oberman
Susan Oberman discovered the world of international recreational folk dancing on Long Island in 1981. Attending classes, workshops, and camps throughout her 29 years of folk dancing has continually increased her appreciation of folk dances and songs as the fabric that kept communities together in good times and bad.
In 1988 she and her teaching partner Sue Chase moved to Central Virginia and began holding neighborhood gatherings to teach folk dancing in Sue's house. They soon began teaching a bi-monthly class which continued until 2001. They taught folk dancing as part of a variety of community events such as First Night Virginia, The Governor's French Academy, The Senior Center Community Day, and the ACCDSS Folk Dance Festival. Sue and Susan joined with an ongoing class taught by Susan Jones at the Senior Center in 2006.
Bill Shaw
Bill has been dancing off and on for 25 years. About 10 years ago he finally decided to jump in with both feet and consistently attend the local folkdance sessions. He traveled to Greece in 2011 to attend the 12th Seminar of Greek Dance to learn from Kyriakos Moisidis. Upon return, Bill was inspired to share some of the dances he had learned. Since then, he has traveled to Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and Turkey learning dances from those countries. He has also attended folk dance workshops regularly and teaching the dances he has learned, thereby increasing the repertoire of the group.