Jo Crawford, Program Director

International folk dance teacher

Jo Crawford started folk dancing within a day or two of arriving at Grinnell College in Iowa in 1975. She danced several times a week, and by junior year, she was teaching folk dance and coordinating the annual Spring Performance. This continued during her senior year, and then she was tapped to be the Folk Dance Club Advisor for a year after graduation. After moving back east in 1981, Jo began teaching regularly for Framingham International Folk Dancers and occasionally for the Folk Arts Center of New England, with a few years off for performing, having children, and returning to school. She is a certified fitness instructor, teaching strength training and yoga (and the occasional folk dance) in local senior centers.

Jo danced with the Mandala Folk Dance Ensemble in the 1980s. She served on the Board of Trustees of the National Folk Organization from 2000 to 2006; she was the on-site coordinator for NFO’s 2004 Annual Conference in Lowell, MA. She coordinated FAC’s Oktoberfest weekend from 1998 through 2001 and was a member of FAC’s Program Committee for five years before becoming Program Director in 2004. She has served on the Board of the Parish Center for the Arts (her home town art center) since 2003 and helped establish the Family Dance and Contra Dance series that still continue there.