Experience three days of the finest old-time music and dance that ever set toes to tapping. Joining the Circle Dance Camp at Hunt Hill is for people of all ages and walks of life. Come to share in the music making, dancing, singing, learning, food, leisure, and daily living tasks surrounded by 350 acres of wild life sanctuary. The weekend is filled with dances, music, dance and music workshops, singing, nature hikes, swimming, canoeing, kids activities and fine dining.

Facilities & Lodging: Hunt Hill Sanctuary provides a natural setting in which to relax and forget about daily life. An old fashioned cedar barn houses a dining hall below and the dance floor above. Two dormitories provide housing options of private 2 or 3 person rooms, or larger family/group rooms of up to ten people. Guests provide their own bedding and towels. Each dormitory has its own rest rooms with a shower house near by. Plenty of recreational opportunities await you including hiking, swimming, canoeing, birding and more.

Weekend Cuisine : Friday night's meal is pot luck. All other meals are provided. Our cooks serve the finest vegetarian meals in Northern Wisconsin . Plenty of snacks and beverages will be available throughout the weekend.

Keep checking this web site for more information as it develops.

Brochures will be mailed out in March of this year. Be sure to return them early to assure yourself a spot. Remember we take reservations on a first come, first come first serve basis.

At Last! A Dance Week in the Midwest!
   By Kevin McMullin

It started with an observation: “Gee, there really aren’t any dance weeks in the upper Midwest…” It only took a little encouragement from the Country Dance and Song Society and a few of our friends to get my wife, Karen Kaufman and I to entertain the idea in earnest. An approach from a local art center sealed the idea. So here we are ready to launch Midwestern Heart family dance week, August 12-18 in 2007 at the Shell Lake Art Center, in Shell Lake Wisconsin. A week of dancing and music for all ages.

The Shell Lake Art Center has built its formidable reputation by hosting music camps, particularly jazz camps, for high school students. It has dance and workshop spaces, dormitories, kitchen and dining facilities, and is located next to hiking trails and a large lake with easy access to town.

We know how important food is from our experience with Joining the Circle dance weekend, so we’ve made hiring excellent cooks one of our highest priorities. Trust me, eating well is not going to be a problem.

We’re relying on the best artistic staff the Midwest has to offer: Carol Ormand and Sue Hulsether, both from Wisconsin, and Sue Kaufman, from the Twin Cities. All three are callers with unimpeachable Midwest credentials. The Twin Cities is also providing music mavens Patrice Pakiz (a Shell Lake Art Center alum), and Pat O’Loughlin. Both play with Contratopia. Maria Terres and Amy McFarland are fabulous musicians from the Madison Band, Last Gaspé. The phenomenally talented Eric (Puck) Peterson, formerly with Pig’s Eye Landing, now hails from Bloomington, Indiana. Ellen Keane and Phil Warner will be contributing their considerable skills to rounding out our staff. There’s plenty of experience with all ages on this staff and more creativity than you can throw a dance shoe at. Other staff are pending, but with this kind of start it’s hard not to get excited already.

So take heart Midwest Dancers! You will no longer need to travel thousands of miles to spend a week dancing in beautiful surroundings with fabulous musicians. You won’t even have to start your own dance band. Out of the land of sky blue waters a new heart is starting to beat. A Midwestern Heart. And I don’t know about you, but Karen and I aim to do a lot of dancing.