Dance Masters
Nearly all of our dances are “called” by experienced members who remember the next move so that you don’t have to! We’re fortunate to have three skilled dance masters who make even the most challenging dances fun for beginners and experienced dancers alike. Click on the photos above to learn more about each one.
Mike White has appeared as a caller, instructor, and performer at hundreds of folk and historic dance events throughout the Tristate. He enjoys leading dances with clever or complicated patterns, and has a knack for making them seem easy.
Mike started dancing with the Berea College Country Dancers in 1982. He has been leading dances for the Cincinnati English Country Dancers since 1990 and calling dances with the Cincinnati Contra Dancers since 1987.
Debbie Hall started dancing contra and squares at summer camp in Vermont while in college. She performed with the Cincinnati English Country Dancers at the Fair at New Boston in the 1980s and '90s and with the folk-dance group Vennekreds Too in Denmark and Norway in 1989.
Debbie began calling English Country dances in Cincinnati in 2002. She recently taught English Country dances while on a contra dance trip to New Zealand.
Tom Tumbusch specializes in English Country Dances that can be traced to the Elizabethan era. He has taught and performed Renaissance dance since 1988, reconstructing works popularized by Thoinot Arbeau (Jehan Tabourot), Fabritio Caroso, Cesare Negri and John Playford.
Over the years Tom has served as a choreographer for the Ohio Renaissance Festival and Wright State University’s annual Madrigal Dinner. He is a founding member of the Cincinnati Historic Dance Society, and may occasionally be found moonlighting as a Swing and Lindy Hop instructor.