Your Dance Mistress: Susan de Guardiola
Susan de Guardiola is an internationally-renowned dance historian and teacher who will be teaching our workshop and leading the dancing at the ball. She has taught historical and modern social dancing across the USA as well as in Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, and Ukraine and is looking forward to a fun-filled evening of timey-wimey Bridgerton dancing!

Your Musicians: Marnen Laibow-Koser (viola), Catherine Miller (violin), and Sammy Wetstein (cello)
Marnen E. Laibow-Koser has been playing music for dancing since the age of eleven. He has toured with The Flying Romanos in England, Canada, and Japan, and has also played for dances throughout the United States with other bands including The Mad Katters and The Moving Violations. Marnen plays music ranging from Javanese gamelan to opera. He has appeared on stages across Europe with guitar virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore as a member of the Renaissance-folk-rock band Blackmore’s Night, and frequently plays for musical theater and ballet throughout the Northeast and elsewhere. Marnen is also active as a composer of chamber and vocal music, and is currently writing an opera based on ancient Greek mythology.

Catherine Miller is a violinist and dance musician in the Boston area. She holds a degree in violin performance from the University of Iowa. As a regular performer in English, Scottish, and contra bands, she has been described as a “coalescing force” with other musicians. She plays regularly in the Boston and New England area.

Sammy Wetstein is a multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, and teacher who holds a degree in folk and jazz string performance at Berklee College of Music, where he became versed in a variety of styles, performing, recording, and teaching throughout the worlds of classical, jazz, and traditional Celtic, New England, Bluegrass, and Old Time fiddle music. Sammy has appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian, and has served as faculty at camps and workshops such as Maine Fiddle Camp, The Swannanoa Gathering, The Ashokan Center, Fiddle Hell, Pinewoods, and the IBMA Kids on Bluegrass Program. He co-directs a number of weekend folk cello retreats throughout the year.