YDW Committee

YDW is organized by a committee of volunteers. We thought you’d like to know who we are.

Mo Brachfeld

Mo Brachfeld has been singing, dancing, and making music since childhood. They grew up attending intergenerational music and dance events, where they discovered the joy of dancing and singing in community. Mo has a BA in dance from Mount Holyoke College (where they helped start the Mount Holyoke Folk Music and Dance Society). As a fiddler they play traditional and original tunes for concerts and dances, including as half of the duo Starling. Mo teaches sean nós (Irish old style) dance in person and online, and enjoys jamming with others on fiddle and feet. When not dancing and making music, Mo likes reading queer fabulist fiction, baking, riding horses, and exploring new places around Western MA.

Hazel Edwards

Hazel Edwards loves contra dancing and singing and music and the communities that she has found through dancing! She works outdoors (with human kids and, when she’s lucky, goat kids), and her main work interests are teaching kids about ecology and farming and encouraging them to be kind to each other. Outside of work, she loves swimming and gardening in the summer, cross country skiing in the winter, and cooking delicious meals any time of year! Talk to her about ice cream or about foraging wild food.  She has been working seasonally and calling Northampton, MA, Maine, and the Boston area home at various times each year and loves her communities in each place but will maybe eventually “settle down.” She started contra dancing in Concord in high school but considers BIDA and Greenfield to be her home dances, too. After a several-year tenure as YDW’s volunteer lost and found coordinator, she is delighted to be helping to organize this incredible weekend!

Kemma Kahn

Kemma has been folk dancing at various camps since before she can remember, and is incredibly excited to keep the YDW legacy going. She hails from NYC but currently resides in Somerville

Eileen O’Grady

Eileen began playing fiddle music at age 12 under the guidance of folk legend Pete Sutherland. Growing up in Vermont, she was a founding member of The Irregulars, a six-piece teen trad band that performed across New England. She has experimented with and been influenced by many fiddle styles over the years, including Irish, Quebecois, Cape Breton and Old Time. While a student at Mount Holyoke College, she founded the Mount Holyoke Folk Music and Dance Society. She is currently a member of Calluna, a Massachusetts-based trad trio that plays driving dance tunes from an Irish contemporary repertoire. When she’s not jamming, contra dancing or blues dancing, Eileen is a mild-mannered newspaper reporter.

Hannah Royce Davis

Hannah Royce Davis (they/them) is a lifelong dancer, co-founder of Bread and Roses Fusion, and former member of the Downtown Amherst Contra Dance organizing committee. They bring a passion for community building to their organizing praxis, and are thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to building safe and inclusive dance spaces for all. When not dancing or organizing, you can find them spending time with friends and loved ones, extolling the virtues of the Libby audiobook app, or experimenting with secret ingredients in the kitchen.

Former Committee Members

YDW has been lucky to have some wonderful committee members who have shaped the weekend in more ways than we can count. Join us in giving thanks to them for all their work over the years!

* Asterisks indicate original founding members

Charlotte Holt

Emilie Moore

Sarah Hirsch

Max Newman

Donal Sheets

Robin Banerji

Harris Lapiroff

Coral Breuer

Maria Cramer

Marisa Keller

Alex (Krogh-Grabbe) Ellis

Julia Nickles*

Rebecca Lay*

Ethan Hazzard-Watkins*

Brian Gallagher*

Magdalen (Zander) Gallagher*

Sarah Pilzer*

Margaret Youngberg

Mary Wesley

Abigail Hobart

Sarah VanNorstrand

Matt Willner