F.O.L.K. Chats
– Fun Opportunities for Lasting Knowledge

Upcoming F.O.L.K. Chats

“Celebrating Chinese Folk Dance & Arts”
is the next NFO F.O.L.K. Chat program on January 25, 2026 at 1 p.m. Pacific time.
This virtual talk will be presented by David Lei.

David Lei is a lifelong advocate for Chinese folk arts and a leading scholar of lion dance traditions. He co-founded the Chung Ngai Dance Troupe in 1966 and helped shape San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade as its director and cultural advisor. Through decades of performance, education, and leadership—including his co-authorship of Chinese Lion Dance Explained—Lei has championed the preservation and evolution of Chinese dance in North America.

Upcoming Chats

January: Celebrating Chinese Folk Dance & Arts with David Lei

What are NFO F.O.L.K. Chats?

They are Zoom presentations for NFO Members and prospective members and are part of your NFO Member Benefits. They are being offered free, via Zoom. It is one way we can connect with not only our individual members but also our group members. If you are the contact person for an NFO Member Group, please remember that all of the members of your group are considered NFO members. Since group members don’t receive personal copies of the NFO News, they depend on you to learn about these NFO F.O.L.K. Chat presentations and that they are welcome to attend them.
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F.O.L.K. Chats
All the presentations since late December 2021:
Date of Folk Chat Topic Presenter(s) Video link
November 1, 2025 Exploring Teaching Strategies for Folk Dance France Bourque-Moreau, Bruce Hamilton, & Sue Hulsether NFO Chat Video
February 15, 2024 Exploring Google Drive, Docs, Sheets Cricket Raybern NFO Chat Video
January 6, 2024 Traditional Armenian Dances Tom Bozigian & Sheree King NFO Chat Video
September 17, 2023 A Latin American Adventure with Gigi Jensen Gigi Jensen NFO Chat Video
August 17, 2023 Zoom Whiteboard and Other Zoom Features Cricket Raybern
July 13, 2023 Whose Music Is It Anyway? Bill Cope NFO Chat Video
May 13, 2023 Teaching International Folk Dances Bianca de Jong
April 13, 2023 Albanian Dance Forms Stephen Kotansky NFO Chat Video
February 19, 2023 Equipment, Schematics, Settings, & Tricks for Live Music Events Asaf Ophir NFO Chat Video
January 22, 2023 Tips & Tricks for Hybrid Events Sherry Cochran Tips & Tricks Video
December 11, 2021 Dance in Rwanda Janet Reineck Video and Slides
September 2021 Audacity Music Editor Adony Beniares Music Editing
September 2021 Goldwave Music Editor Dale Adamson Music Editing
August 2021 MIT Player Murray Spiegel NFO Music Players Video
August 2021 MusicBee Adony Beniares NFO Music Players Video
July 2021 Bare Feet Michela Mallozzi Michela Mallozzi Teaser

November 1, 2025 – “Exploring Teaching Strategies for Folk Dance” explores folk dance teaching methods that support both experienced and emerging teachers. The panel discussion includes noted folk dance educators France Bourque-Moreau, Bruce Hamilton, and Sue Hulsether. Presented in conjunction with The Mentoring Project.

Cricket demystifies the Google Drive structure and how to navigate it. She explains how to locate, star, and un-star Google folders and documents. Then learn how to create, share, update, and print Google docs and sheets.

Dances brought to America by Armenian immigrants over the last century.

Colombian-born Gigi Jensen will share her experiences in Latin America through photos & videos of music, dance, crafts, & beautiful places off the beaten path.

We will guide you through the use of this powerful interactive tool, and include some other fun aspects of Zoom.

Bill Cope and his special guests explore how music moves between musicians, dance teachers, and dancers.

Bianca de Jong joined us from The Netherlands, and led a discussion of what it takes to be a good folk dance teacher.

NFO hosted Steve Kotansky doing a F.O.L.K. Chat on Albanian Dance Thursday, April 13. We love the Albanian dances and music. Steve has made several trips researching dance in Albania and is a wonderful speaker. This unique opportunity to hear about his trips, the Albanian people, and the evolution of their 2 dance forms will be available on video soon. Click here for his music. Thank you Steve!

Learn about the equipment, schematics, settings, and tricks to use for Live Music Events. Presented by Asaf Ophir.

Sherry Cochran hosted this panel discussion. NFO is making the video of the session available for viewing.

Janet Reineck describes the work her nonprofit, “World Dance for Humanity”, is doing in Rwanda. Thanks to an annual grant that covers their modest overhead, 100% of all class proceeds and designated donations go to their work in Rwanda.

Another request had to do with editing music files. Many of the older dance music files were originally records that were converted to audio tape, then converted to digital files. The result is often files with pops and clicks, a back-ground hum, volume issues, etc. In late September and early October, we presented beginner workshops on audio file editing. The September workshop was about using Goldwave; the October workshop was about using Audacity. Here is the link to those workshops. As a result of these workshops, several people have asked for an intermediate-level workshop on audio file editing. We’re pulling that together and will offer it in the near future.

Many people are not particularly happy with the app they are using to play music for their groups, and they requested information about what other groups are using. In August, we offered two workshops discussing the two most popular music apps being used by folk dance groups, MusicBee and MITPlayer. If you missed those workshops, videos of them are available on the NFO Google Drive. Here is the link to those workshops.

The first two F.O.L.K. Chat presentations, which were held in July during the 2021 Stockton Folk Dance Camp event, featured Michela Mallozzi, creator of the Emmy award-winning TV program, Bare Feet. Michela has traveled around the world folk dancing with people while also learning about their foods, traditions, and culture. Michela was a presenter at our 2021 NFO Conference and was so well received that we invited her back for these July presentations. She shared the story of her journey, taught a dance, and talked with us about things she has done and learned.