Workshop with Michael Ginsburg

Folk dance workshop with master instructor Michael Ginsburg hosted by Saratoga International Folk Dancers.

Michael Ginsburg

Michael has been teaching Balkan Folk Dance for over 50 years starting in 1964 with Michael Herman’s Folk Dance House in New York City. He continues to teach a weekly Balkan dance class in New York City. He has taught workshops all over the United States and Canada, as well as in Brazil, Japan, Israel, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Michael has been on the teaching staff of many folk dance camps and seminars including Stockton Folk Dance Camp, Kolo Festival in San Francisco, the annual Balkan Music and Dance Seminars in Mendocino, CA, and Rock Hill, NY, as well as the Macedonian Pearl Seminars in Berovo, Macedonia.

Also a musician, Michael plays tupan with Cherven Traktor, a band that plays Bulgarian folk music on traditional instruments, and trumpet with Kavala Brass Band, a band that specializes in brass music of Aegean Macedonia. He is a founding member and lead trumpeter of Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, formed in 1983. In 1987 they were the first foreign band to appear at the Annual Gathering of Trumpeters in Guca, Serbia. They also represented the US in the first international competition at Guca in 2010.

Michael also heads the program committee of the Golden Festival in Brooklyn, New York, an event that attracts 4,000 participants and features over 60 musical groups each year. More details…