William C BurkeWilliam (Billy) Burke has been involved with the dance of different cultures since he was a preschooler. Growing up he danced with many different amateur groups in the San Francisco Bay area. He toured professionally with the Don Cossack Choir. Movin to Los Angeles and joining the AMAN Folk ensemble he became a lead dancer and was the first recipient of the AMAN Scholarship to study abroad. He was also the original director of the AMAN touring company. His teaching experience spans over 5 decades including 37 years teaching ethnic dance in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has also presented master classes in Balkan dance at several universities and dance camps.For this Statewide he will focus on mostly Northern Macedonian material with dances taken from the AMAN institutes of the 1970s.He has approached his craft with the following thought: "The joy of celebrating a culture through its music and dance is to be found in the head, heart, and soul of the performer. To do so in one's own culture is a duty, to do so in the culture of others, an honor." Read More Read Less