Mazurka Wojciechowska

Mazurka Wojciechowska is one of Chicago's few professional accordionists. She specializes in the folk music of Central and Southeastern Europe as well as performing regularly in three local Cabarets. She was graduated cum laude from the American Conservatory of Music and has performed on tours in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She also plays the hammer dulcimer and sings in over a dozen languages.

Paul Collins

Paul Collins began dancing with his parents at the age of eight and has been an ethnic folk dance leader & square/contra dance caller since high school. While dancing with his parents' adult group, he had the opportunity to call his first square dance at the age of 12.

Paul has been a guest teacher and caller at dances from the North Country to the Deep South and has even called squares and taught folk dancing for the hearing impaired at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.

Paul led the University of Chicago Folk Dance Club for many years and introduced squares and contras into the group's repertoire. After directing the U of C Folk Dancers' Annual Fall "International Folk Festival" for twelve years, Paul joined Gerhard Bernhard in producing the Door County Folk Festival (www.dcff.net) and two years later became a festival co-director.