Joined the Board July 2020
Hollie Benton has been a supporting member of Tapestry since she and her family moved to the Twin Cities in 2012.  She is a regular at Contradance and has dipped her toes into English Country, Mostly Waltz, Nordic Dance, Zumba, and Morris dancing.  Hollie and her family have hosted a number of exchange students over the years and enjoy international travel.

Joined the board November 2024. Lydia has been involved with Tapestry for over 30 years, serving on both the board and staff.  She was very involved in the purchase and renovation of the current building and continues to volunteer in the office and at the admissions desk.  She met her husband on the Contra Dance floor but is currently more active in the English Country Dance community.  Her two offspring are both avid Contra Dancers and more.  When not volunteering at Tapestry, she enjoys traveling, gardening, and reading, and cooking.

Hristina first came to Tapestry Folkdance Center in the early 2000s after graduating from the Carlson School of Management and looking for a place that teaches Bulgarian folk dances. She brings passion for international folk dancing and over 20 years of corporate finance experience. Hristina is one of the founders of the Bulgarian School of Minnesota and one of the first events she organized for her community was a Bulgarian folk dance workshop at Tapestry.

Mary first came to Tapestry Folkdance Center in the fall of 2022 when they arrived as a freshman to the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Mary has experience with contra, international, and polish folk dancing, and is a frequent attendee of Saturday night Contra. They hope to continue to introduce younger people to all of Tapestry Folkdance Center's wonderful programming.

Although new to Tapestry Folkdance Center, Nancy first danced in southern Appalachians in the late 60s and early 70s. Now an avid contra dancer and volunteer, she has experience on boards of several small nonprofits, with which she has coordinated events and served on education, program, volunteer recruitment, and development committees. A poet and retired conservation ecologist, she is an avocational landscape historian, weaver, and botanical artist. She presently invests the majority of her time grand-mothering, volunteering, and gardening.

Art has been participating in the Twin Cities folk dance scene since the early 1980's, both as a dancer and as a musician. He performs with the Flour City Doughboys, a contra dance band, and several Scandinavian dance groups. He loves the unique Tapestry Folkdance Center dance space, appreciates all the hard work and sacrifice that has gone into creating it, and hopes to see it thrive for decades to come.

In 1982, seven-year-old Carrie’s love of dance was born out of two events - Micheal Jackson’s Thriller album was released and  her mom took her to the Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker.  She may have been the only seventh grader in her class who enjoyed square dancing in gym. In her 30's & 40's she was surprised to find herself working as a professional fire and hula hoop dancer in Thailand and Burma. Today, a longtime resident of Powderhorn Park, she regularly attends Tapestry’s Zumba classes, and serves as a host and consultant for Dance Church. Carrie hopes to build even more connection with the wide variety of dance and music in our diverse local community.

Tapestry has been part of my life since early 1980's. I started with my last child on my back at a Family Dance. Since I enjoy Contra and English Country. In fact, I met my current husband at a Tapestry dance. I love the music, callers, dances and helpful people. I keep coming back because  I am laughing, smiling and moving my body is an important and necessary part of my life. I recently retired from teaching at a Community College and as a Public Health Nurse. Joining the Board was first choice for putting together my next adventure post-retirement. After dancing I love long walks, reading, singing in a church choir and going to movies with my husband.

I started Contra dancing in the early '80s at the First Existentialist Church in Atlanta GA.  It didn't take long to find Tapestry after I moved to Minneapolis in 1987.  What an adventure to be able to sample all the program offerings finding that English Country Dance was my dance home.  Now, retired from the Minnesota Department of Education, I volunteer at Tapestry and Open Arms of Minnesota, am learning the art of quilting and travel domestically and internationally as much as the budget will allow.

Beau joined the board June 2025.  He has been active with Tapestry since moving to the Twin Cities in 2003, initially as a contra dance caller (a passion for over 40 years), then since 2012 as head of the contra program coordinating committee.  He is currently the CTO at TSI Incorporated, pursuing growth opportunities for the company, and teaches Foresight and Forecasting in the Management of Technology program at the University of Minnesota.  Serving on the board, he hopes to help with vision, promotion, and further positioning Tapestry as an integral and growing part of the community, spreading and enabling the joys of dance.