2026 Spring Breakdown Dance Weekend

Name: 2026 Spring Breakdown Dance Weekend
Start: 2026-03-20T20:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-22T15:00:00-05:00
Location: The Kimball Ballroom

Schedule

Fri, 20 Mar, 2026 at 08:00 pm to Sun, 22 Mar, 2026 at 03:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

The Kimball Ballroom | Columbia, MO

Plan now for a full weekend of dancing, workshops and more! Full Weekend early bird pricing ends on March 1st!
Register online (with *no credit card fees!) at: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2026-spring-breakdown-dance-weekend
Or register by mail by printing and mailing this form: https://mmtd.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2026-spring-breakdown-registration-form-final.pdf
*You will be given the voluntary opportunity to make a contribution to Zeffy, the non-profit platform hosting online registration.
Also, as in the past, we will be offering to help hook up out of town dancers with local housing options in the homes of local dancers. This is on a first come first served basis and is subject to availability of local hosts. If you are coming from out of town and would like home hospitality, or if you are local and have a spare bed, couch, or even floor space for a sleeping bag to offer, please contact us at [email protected].
It takes a village to put on Spring Breakdown and we would love to have your help making it a success! Consider signing up to work a half hour slot helping staff the registration desk: https://evite.me/mBBSrQse2D. And/or, considering signing up to help with Sunday Brunch, or to provide a snack or dish for one of the after parties or the brunch: https://evite.me/9K1uA9ejPN.
Featuring:
Big Brandy and Wendy Graham!
Big Brandy Four cross-genre musicians from the Cosmic Otters and Birdhouse Hollow combine forces to form Big Brandy. They take the best of old-time Appalachian, Irish and French tunes and weave them into exhilarating arrangements, perfectly tailored for contra dancing. Meg Dedolph (guitar, percussion), Wren Eisenhauer (banjo, vocals), Jonathan Whitall (fiddle, piano), Qi Yang (accordion, piano).
Wendy Graham (Brasstown, NC) is a self-described “dance maniac.” Her passion for traditional folk music, song, and dance caught fire in 1991 on a youth dance tour in Denmark. Today, she leads many kinds of dance, including English Country, American contras and squares, partner (swing, latin, waltz, blues, country), and line dances at community and private events around the country and abroad —from Alaska to Denmark and everywhere in between. When not leading and teaching dance, Wendy programs dance weeks/weekends and classes for teens and adults at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. She proudly served on the Lloyd Shaw Foundation and Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) board and Lifetime Contribution Award committee. She is a current CDSS nominating committee member.
Full Schedule:
Schedule is subject to change. All dances & workshops are at Kimball Ballroom, 6 N. College Ave., Columbia, MO.
Friday
7:30 Doors open/registration
8-11:00 Evening Dance
Saturday
(All workshops presented by Wendy Graham and Big Brandy)
10:00-11:30 Percussive Stepping for Dancers – Wendy Graham
1:00-2:30 Kentucky Running Sets (Southern Squares) – Wendy Graham
3:00-4:30 Balfolk – Big Brandy
8:00-11:00 Evening Dance
Sunday
10-12 Potluck brunch
11:30-12:30 Waltzing with Big Brandy
1-3 Closing dance
Workshop Descriptions
10 am: Percussive Stepping for Dancers
Let’s have fun clogging and flatfooting together. First, easily add rhythm to your dance style with a few new basics in your repertoire. Next, after practicing some patterns, incorporate percussive stepping into the contras and squares we dance together in a group.
1-2:30pm – Kentucky Running Sets (Southern Squares)
Traditional dances of Appalachia are fast, fun, and funny! Learn southern square dances known as “Kentuck Running” and “Big” Sets as called by the Rev. Patrick E. Napier, who led Perry County, Kentucky -style dances at Berea College and Christmas Country Dance School for more than 50 years.
3:00-4:30 – Balfolk
Come learn exciting and fun Western European balfolk dances done to great live music. We’ll do some couples dances, full set dances, line dances and more! Experience the social folk dance scene of Europe without getting on a plane – all dances taught, no experience necessary (just like for contras).
Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the City of Columbia, Office of Cultural Affairs.