Knoxville Contra Dance is pleased to invite you to our annual Cabin Fever dance weekend, February 13-15, 2026.
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Registration is not yet open but links will be provided when it is
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Featured Performers
Starling
(Mo Brachfeld and Jared Kirkpatrick) is a long-distance duo, coming from Western MA and NC.
The two met at dance camp many years ago and have been jamming ever since. In addition to the
contra classics and original tunes they play for dances, the two have some harmony singing,
"queer tunes," and percussive dancing planned!
Mo Brachfeld is a fiddler and dancer who grew up attending intergenerational music and dance
events. They play traditional and original tunes for concerts and dances, including as part of the
duo Starling with Jared Kirkpatrick. Mo teaches sean nós (Irish old style) dance in person and
online, and is a creator and co-organizer of Dissident Rhythms, a queer percussive dance retreat.
They are also a committee member of Youth Dance Weekend. Mo lives in Western Massachusetts
where they work on honing their pottery skills and expanding their collection of houseplants.
Jared Kirkpatrick (Starling, Flamingo Sketches) has been immersed in the contra dance world all his life, and has been lucky enough to play with multiple dance bands. With very broad musical influences and interests from Balkan harmony singing to fusion and jazz music, he loves focusing on the possibilities that arise when these styles influence each other and come together. Jared studied jazz vibraphone at Temple University. He is now based in NC, but travels often to play music and run sound at camps and dance communities.
Contra Force
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Charleston-based quartet ContraForce may be deeply rooted in traditional folk music
and the contra dance scene, but when it comes to composing and recording their own
tunes, they certainly don’t shy away from musical experimentation.
Fiddler Andrae Raffield, Percussionish/handpan/saxophonist Joey Dorwart, guitarist
Jimi “Two Nails” Peirano, and Vocalist Karin Mcquade have collaborated on old stand
ards and new originals, working in and around the Celtic and Appalachian folk styles
normally featured at contra dances. Karin McQuade has been an enchanting vocal
element, joining a few years after the band formed.
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Raffield started playing violin at the age of six, training classically through middle
school. In his teens, he began picking up on various folk styles, playing fiddle, guitar,
and bass.
Dorwart dabbled in saxophone as a kid in Pennsylvania before moving to South Carolina when he was 10. Inspired by Primus’ Les Claypool and Fishbone's Angelo Moore, he began playing the electric bass as a teen and switched over to sax and drums by the time he started jamming with experimental metal and punk bands.
Raffield and Dorwart go way back with contra dance music. They performed together for years in the contra bands Anna’s Bananas and Shady Groove before enlisting Peirano to form ContraForce.
The Band mixed their entirely instrumental debut album in a home studio at Dorwart’s East Cooper home. According to Dorwart, they recorded all of the tracks in one take with no overdubs. The final result is an eclectic, and occasionally psychedelic collection titled "Rise of the Folk Organism". Soon followed by a Waltz album "THIS", a more focussed studio album pulling in more experimental and contra elements together "Mongrel Vibrations", and an intense psychedelic album "RoboMate' and the Funeral Pranksters"
Chris Page
Chris has called contra and ECD for two decades, across the country from San Diego to Los Angeles. He’s also perpetrated over 200 contra dance sequences, at least one of which you probably like. His choreographic study has gotten a bit out of hand, resulting in a public database of 15,576+ dances, but who's counting?
Chris judged a bad contra contest and won a NEFFA good contra contest, and tries not to get those two confused in his bio. Behind the mic, Chris is seriously committed to not taking himself too seriously and encourages the same of dancers.
Workshop Descriptions
workshops are yet to be determined, This information will be updated as it becomes avaiable