PEDANTICS is a percussive dance ensemble specializing in Appalachian Clogging and Flatfooting, and step dancing from many cultures. Our members come from Maryland and Virginia, and perform throughout the region. 

Founded in 1984 by Tom Hinds and Megaera Kuny as the Stump Jumpers, the group began expanding their repertoire to include other styles of percussive dance, such as English and Vaudeville clogging, French Canadian and Irish step dancing, and Tap. The name PedAntics was adopted in 1994 to reflect the wider range of percussive styles.

PedAntics offers exciting solo, duo and group numbers, from traditional steps and dances passed on through many generations, to new and innovative choreographies by Megaera Kuny and others.

Upcoming Performances:
 

Event	Location	Date and Time	More Information
St. Patrick's Day Festival and Dinner	Lovettsville Community Center, VA	March 16, 2004 6 - 7:30 pm
Chestertown Tea Party	Chestertown, MD	May 29, 2004	http://www.chestertownteaparty.com/
Waterford Crafts Festival	Waterford, VA	October 2, 2004	http://www.waterfordva-wca.org/waterford-fair.htm
St. John's Flea Market	North Baltimore, MD	TBD

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Member Bios:

Megaera Kuny is a co-founder as well as the chief choreographer of PedAntics, and has taught many workshops in clogging and step dancing. Her proudest and most recent accomplishment is the birth of her son Isak.
 

Tom Hinds has been dancing since 1979, and calling squares and contras since 1984. He is the author of a series of American dance books, including Dance All Night. He also plays piano in the contra dance bands, Pas de Quoi. His step dance repertoire includes English clog, tap, and French Canadian/Cape Breton as well as Appalachian clogging. The member with the longest commute, he lives in Charlottesville, VA. His current interests and activities include caller development and workshops in the Charlottesville area and in DC.
     He is earning his living now as a full-time caller, musician, dancer and teacher. He also leads rock climbing expeditions in the Appalachians/Blue Ridge.
 
 

Alan Leader has been an avid clogger and social dancer for many years, joining PedAntics in 1988. He has given workshops in clogging and earned a ribbon at the renowned Clifftop clogging contest in 1993. Additionally, he sings, and plays guitar, fiddle, and banjo. In his spare time he is a carpenter and remodeller.
 

Laura Robertson has been dancing since 1977, in a wide variety of social and performance dance, including (but not limited to) Contras, English Country, Ballroom, Morris, Rapper, Longsword, English, Irish, Scottish, and French Canadian step-dancing, and Appalachian clogging (since 1986). She has been on staff at CDSS Buffalo Gap Dance Week, Mendocino, and Augusta Heritage Center and the Philadelphia Heritage Festival (amongst others) as a step dance and clogging instructor. She has toured as a member of "Footworks," a professional Clogging company, throughout England, Scotland, and Wales, including performing for several weeks in the London version of "Riverdance" in 1996.
     Laura has been a member of PedAntics since 1997, and currently also dances with a Maryland morris team.  She performs with and runs an English step dance team and a rapper team, both out of Baltimore. By day, she is an Interventional Radiologist and Chairman of Imaging at Bon Secours Hospital.
 

Ted Hodapp has been dancing New England Contras, traditional and country dances from England, as well as Scandinavian turning dances for nearly 25 years.  He has been teaching dance for nearly all of that time.  He founded and lead rapper-sword and English longsword groups and is a dancer and musician with the Minnesota Traditional Morris Dancers and PedAntics.  Ted is the former artistic director of the Woven Ring English Country dancers, and regularly teaches English Country Dance, Contras, Clogging, Scandinavian couple dances, and traditional dance forms from England both locally and in more than twenty states throughout the country and Denmark.  He is a co-author of several books of original contra dances and is currently pursuing new dance interests in Swing, Argentine Tango, Cajun/Zydeco and Appalachian Clogging.  When he is not dancing (when would that be?), he is usually working as Professor and Chair of the Physics Department at Hamline University teaching, amongst other things, the concepts of angular momentum from a more theoretical perspective.  Since August 2002 he has been working for the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. as a Program Officer and desperately trying to avoid wearing a tie.

Renée Camus is a dancer, performer, choreographer and researcher concentrating on Percussive dance forms as well as historical dance. She also maintains this site and her own web pages, upon which you can read much more about her.