AMAN INTERNATIONAL FOLK ENSEMBLE (principal DANCER)
Tanza (Director - MIDDLE SCHOOL PERFORMANCE GROUP)
Ethnic dance Leader
Williamburke IS A 37 year mentor teacher/dance Instructor FOR THE LOS ANGLES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT.
It is my firm belief that any teacher can include the material in my text into their classroom curriculum. An awareness of cultures learned through how they express themselves in dance, is an important and meaningful part of a student's education. This is the vision that spurred the writing of this text. I started working on it over 40 years ago. It has gone through numerous versions, growing from 20 dances to 368 and 170 pages. Please enjoy the fruits of so many years efforts by using the techniques and material included in, "A Celebration of Diversity: Multicultural Experience Through the Art of Dance"
William C. Burke, most people in the folk dance world know me as Billy Burke. My mother became involved in the field of Folk Dance when I was less than two years old. No baby sitters involved, so I was taken to all of her practices and performances. She started a class for children when I was 5 years old, she then started a performance group for young people, when I was 12. At the age of 15 I started dancing with my first adult performing group "Madelynne Greene's Folkance Workshop in San Francisco. After that I danced with a wide variety of ethnic dance clubs in the city. I danced with a Russian community group, German, Balkan, Scottish and various others.
I became a professional dancer at 19 and toured the United States and Canada with the Don Cossack Choir. In 1970 I moved to Los Angeles and joined the AMAN Folk Ensemble. I was the original director of the chamber group that toured schools, and the first recipient of the AMAN Scholarship to study dance over seas. After several years I retired and started my work with young people.
I taught in LAUSD for 37 years, all traditional dance. My middle school performance group was called "TANZA" and danced at events throughout California.
I have had the opportunity to teach teachers how to introduce traditional/recreational dance into their class curriculum through the California Arts Project and The University of Phoenix.
I was a contributing member of the team that wrote the LAUSD Performing Arts Standards and have had input into the state standards, note the term "Traditional/Recreational" appears in them.