Registration Opens March 1
Pawling 2025
May 16-18
Pawling 2025 May 16-18, 2025
Teachers:
Linda Henderson
Originally from North Berwick, near Edinburgh, Linda now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, but travels home to Scotland whenever she can! She has 3 grown children and works part-time in Elementary School.
Like most Scottish children, Linda was introduced to Country Dancing at Primary School, and she was also a competitive Highland Dancer. She was lucky to grow up in a musical household; her father played accordion and she played piano in a SCD Band.
Linda teaches weekly classes in the San Francisco Branch, and has taught throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, and has been on staff at Summer Schools in St. Andrews, TAC (Canada) and in Australia. She also enjoys ceilidh calling and can often be found leading the dances at parties and weddings! Linda is delighted to be teaching at the Pawling Weekend again and is looking forward to meeting up with friends old and new.
Charles Liu
Charles was introduced to Scottish Country Dancing by his then girlfriend (now his wife). He was hooked after dancing for the entire evening of the Boston Highland Ball, having only started Scottish dancing a couple of months earlier.
Charles enjoyed Scottish dancing and music so much that he decided to train as a teacher. After receiving his teaching certification, he served as the chair of the Teaching and Music Committee of the RSCDS Boston Branch, organizing many workshops to promote dancing, share teaching ideas and cultivate new dance teachers. He now teaches regularly in several classes of the Boston Branch, and has taught workshops including Pinewoods and Argyle Weekend. He encourages dancers to pay attention to the music, support fellow dancers, and work together as a team, which is often more rewarding than steps and figures alone. Besides Scottish dancing,
Charles dabbles in playing Scottish tunes on the fiddle and enjoys English Country Dancing. He supports his dancing and music hobbies by working as a financial regulator in the Boston area during the day.
Musicians
Pianist Dave Wiesler (Newark, DE) began playing traditional Scottish music for dances and concerts in 1993 and started dancing it two years later. Since then he has become highly regarded for his strong rhythm, his technical skills, and his deep knowledge of the genre, as well as for his versatility in other styles careening through classical music, classic rock, jazz, song parody, and many other dance forms. Most often he plays SCD with his band Thistle House, but he regularly joins other musicians. Dave is a capable guitarist, a prolific composer of tunes, a dabbler in more complex musical pieces, and a proud father of two boys, one of whom has just decided he likes to do SCD.
Elizabeth Anderson (Quincy, MA) discovered Scottish fiddling at Pinewoods at age 12 and has been fiddling and dancing ever since.
She is the 2020 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion and the winner of the 2016 Perth All-Scotland Fiddle Championship. Elizabeth’s early training came through a combination of Classical violin lessons and learning at fiddle workshops and camps. A formative moment came in the fall of 2016, when she spent a semester in Glasgow to study under fiddler Douglas Lawrence and experience the music culture of Scotland firsthand. She holds music education degrees from Berklee College of Music (B.M. 2017) and Ithaca College (M.M. 2022).
Elizabeth teaches orchestra full time in Walpole, MA, where she directs seven grade-level orchestras and teaches small group lessons.
An active performer, Elizabeth plays with her brother as Scottish fiddle/cello duo “Elizabeth and Ben Anderson," as well as for Scottish dances and balls throughout the Northeast.
Ben Anderson has been playing violin for over 20 years, and cello for over 15. After starting on classical, he fell in love with Scottish music during his years attending the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School. Since then, he has continued learning at iconic camps such as the Pure Dead Brilliant fiddle weekend and the Boston States Fiddle Camp. Today, he most commonly performs with his sister Elizabeth, who together have performed from across New England to Scotland and France. He also frequently plays for dances, including Pinewoods Scottish Session and the Pinewoods Benefit Ball. As his day job, he works in software engineering.
Registration
Registration opens March 1
Prices include tuition, room, board, and gratuities. Registration is not complete until full payment is received. Full refunds will be made for cancellations received on or before April 25, 2025. Refund requests received after that date will be filled to the extent possible.
Covid-19 Protocols
Full vaccination recommended
Masking is optional
Protocols subject to change as needed
Children are welcome at Pawling Weekend. Pricing for children will be determined by the amount charged by the facility, which may vary by age of child.
Full refunds will be made for cancellations received on or before April 25, 2025. Refund requests received after that date will be filled to the extent possible.
Scholarships
Scholarships are available for this event. Interested? See the scholarship page for full information.
Accommodations
Room Information
All rooms have individual bathrooms with shower and combination heater/air conditioner units. The camp provides 2 towels, sheets, pillows and blankets per room. As it can get cold, we recommend that you bring an electric blanket or some extra blankets. If you need additional towels or a washcloth or bathmat, please bring them. Please check when you arrive to confirm that everything works in your room. Please let us know if it doesn’t.
Rooms will be available after 3pm on Friday. Dinner will begin at 6pm and the Welcome Dance starts at 8:15 pm. If you arrive during dinner or the dance please come to the dining hall for your packet.
Camp Information
Although there are lights on all the buildings, we recommend that you bring a flashlight, and rain gear, for walking between buildings.
No outside food or drink (including glasses, mugs, dishes) can be brought into the Dining Hall, as it is strictly Kosher. You may have whatever snacks you like in your room and in the dance pavilions. A coffee room outside the dining hall will have hot coffee and tea throughout the weekend.
Restrooms are located in the Dining Hall, Kramer Pavilion, and the Welcome Center; and outside the Synagogue/Theater.
After you unpack your car, please park in the main parking lot by the Welcome Center, in the parking lot behind Negev, or as directed by Berkshire Hills staff.
More information about specific housing locations is on the registration form.
Link to the Berkshire Hills virtual tour: click here.
Directions
Driving from New York
Take Route 684 to Route 22 North. Ten miles past Millerton turn left onto Trout Brook Road and travel 0.9 miles. Take a left onto Empire Road. Berkshire Hills is 0.6 miles down the road on the right hand side.
Driving from Boston
Take 90W (the MA pike) to Exit B3 (Austerlitz/New Lebanon) which is just over the New York border. Turn left onto Route 22 and travel 23.5 miles. Turn right onto Trout Brook Road and travel 0.9 miles. Take a left onto Empire Road. Berkshire Hills is 0.6 miles down the road on the right hand side.
GPS
159 Empire Road, Copake, New York 12516
As cell service is spotty near camp, we recommend printing or downloading a map of your chosen route before you leave.
Public Transportation
Arriving Near Camp
MetroNorth to Wassaic
Amtrak to Hudson
Bus to Great Barrington
To Camp
Lyft
Uber
Cabs from Wassaic
Watson Livery - 845-464-8178
Morning Star - 845-493-0211
Nearby Restaurants and Shops
If stopping for lunch
Four Brothers Delectable is 42 miles north of Route 684 on Route 22 in Millerton. Address for GPS is 5952 N Elm Ave, Millerton, NY 12546
Supermarkets and Liquor Stores
Hillsdale Supermarket 2628 NY-23, Hillsdale, NY 12529 - 9 miles from camp
Hillsdale Fine Wine and Spirit 8 Anthony St, Hillsdale, NY 12529
Copake Wine Works 177 CR 7A Copake NY 12516
Price Chopper 300 Stockbridge Rd, Great Barrington, MA 01230
Plaza Package Store 155 State Rd, Great Barrington, MA 01230
Location
Berkshire Hills Eisenberg Camp
159 Empire Rd
Copake, NY
Schedule
2025 Class Schedule -to come
Classes
Foundation —For dancers who wish to firm up their understanding of the basics or brush up on their dancing and supporting skills. The focus will be on social dancing.
Sky-Scraper — For dancers who are well grounded in the fundamentals and want to reach for the stars. The focus will be on footwork and less-common formations. This is a high impact class.
Satisfying Simples — There’s something so wonderful about a dance that you can dance with joy, enjoying the music and the interaction with your partners and the others in the set. These will be dances with well-known formations that flow beautifully from one formation to another so you can relax and enjoy the fun.
Tricky Tracks — Do you love brain teasers danced in two-bar phrases, not one standard formation in the bunch? These will be dances that turn those formations on their heads and twist them around into something else entirely. Bring your GPS just in case.
Teacher’s choice —
Beyond SCD: genre mashup - Katherine Giacoletti
A Wee Dram: dances inspired by whisky - Katherine Shearman
West Coast Magic: British Columbia devisors - Katherine Shearman
Morning Gold: Delaware Valley dances - Katherine Giacoletti
Evening Dance Programs
Welcome Dance Program 2025
Highland Ball Program 2025
Programs from Previous Years
Pawling Bazaar
Please bring dance-related items that are clean and in good condition to be sold at the Pawling Bazaar. Gowns, skirts, vests, shirts, blouses, cummerbunds, jabots, ties, jackets, kilts, gloves, sashes, tiaras, etc. The Bazaar will be open from 3:00 to 6:00pm Friday to accept articles for sale; no browsing allowed until the Bazaar opens at 8:30am on Saturday. All unsold articles must be retrieved by 2:00pm Sunday when the Bazaar closes. A minimum of 50% of proceeds must be donated to The Joan Treble Scholarship Fund. The Fund aims to promote Scottish Country Dancing in the New York area by encouraging dancers to improve their skills through participation in workshops and training courses.
Contact Us
Email: pawlingweekend@gmail.com
Phone: Deborah Leary 1-201-694-4646
Gallery
