- Caller and founder of our
San Diego County group

I began English Country Dancing in Philadelphia in 1976, and was in the Germantown Country Dancers performing group for three years.
Once I moved to San Diego, I attended yearly balls in the Oakland area.
I started the San Diego English Country Dance group in October of 2000 partly to have people to practice with for the balls. I’ve enjoyed calling for this group, as well the Escondido English Country Dance group. I love travel, hiking and reading, but English Country Dancing is my consuming passion.
The beauty of the music, as well as the grace and elegance of the steps, are some of the reasons I love this traditional form of dance.

Judee started listening to English Country Dance music back in the late 60's without knowing that the dances still existed and were being danced today. She found ECD on the web after watching the BBC Jane Austen movies back in 1996, and wanted to find out more about these lovely dances. She started dancing in Torrance, even though it was 70 miles away from her home town of Riverside, because she loved it so much! Judee says: "...After I went to the Jane Austen Ball in 2000 I knew I could die having done almost everything in life worth doing..."

In 1999 Judee began calling English Country Dances at her elementary school, where she was a teacher. Then Hal Ramser asked her if she would like to help bring ECD to Riverside and she agreed to be their caller. Hal arranged the Riverside dance group back in March 2000, where Judee was the caller and organizer until 2005.

Judee is frequently asked to be a guest caller, and called for the Gualala Patriot Days Ball in July 2005. She also taught ECD at the Jane Austen Society of North America's AGM in Los Angeles in October 2004. In September 2005 Judee started a new ECD group in Anaheim, Orange County, which meets once a month, and often calls for major balls, most recently at the Playford Ball in Pasadena in 2007.

Janet has been folk dancing for close to 30 years. She originally got involved in dance as a way to meet people; little did she know that she would fall in love with folk dance and the music. She got involved with teaching English Country dance because the dance community needed callers.

Janet has attended several workshops for teachers/leaders of dance including an intensive weekend led by Bruce Hamilton, the 'Music for English Dance Leaders' workshop led by Gene Murrow, and the 'Dance Leadership' workshop led by Scott Higgs.

Janet is involved with many types of dance. For four years she danced on the San Diego Moreton Bay Fig Morris dance team. She has been active in the Scottish Country Dance Society in San Diego for 21 years. She has been on several demonstration dance teams. You may also find her dancing Contradance, Cajun & Zydeco and Ballroom.