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BALKANIZE! formed in December of 2006, born of a chance encounter between Laurie Hribal, Patrick McGhee and Geoff Bennett Speer at a belly dance hafla at Pho 79 in Henrico County, October, 2006. Laurie brought Nancy Smith to the first formal rehearsal, and BALKANIZE! was born. Their debut live performance was at Tribal Jam 5, May 12th, 2007.
 

BALKANIZE! is currently made up of the following musicians:































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Laurie Hribal (violin, vocals, percussion)
   Laurie played music of one kind or another for most of her peripatetic life, starting with piano lessons at the age of eight, her first cheap guitar at 15, and the Old Time folk songs that she learned by ear on the fiddle while attending Franconia College. 
   Her exposure to Balkan and Eastern European music began with her interest in international folk dancing at 16, and she was an enthusiastic and longstanding member of Richmond's Festival Folk Dancers and the Richmond International Folk Dance Club for many years. She was a founding member of Dunay, a large ensemble that played Eastern European folk music for international folk dancers from 1991 until its gentle break-up in 2002.
   Laurie had been a bank teller, a dental lab technician, a craftswoman, a repo driver, and had even peeled shrimp to make extra money for Christmas. She found her true calling in holistic manual therapies and opened her own wellness center in 2002.  
   Her love of music and dance shared equal time with her passion for alternative healing, playing with her grandchildren, and seeing what vegetables she could grow in her backyard.
   Laurie was born on January 2nd, 1957. She lost her fight with cancer on April 5th, 2009. She was a founding member of BALKANIZE!

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Geoff Bennett Speer (octave mandolin, kaval, bağlama saz, octave mandolin, darbuka, accordion, cümbüş, clarinet, davul) 

   When Geoff was young, he lived in the former Yugoslavia, where he heard the grandiose orchestrations in praise of Comrade Tito, the gypsy bands that played for dancing drunks in Skadarlija, and the manic, exotic horos and kolos that the bus drivers would blast from their cheap transistor radios. BALKANIZE! is an old, old dream come finally true. 

   Geoff composes and choreographs Middle Eastern belly dance drum solos with his wife Shari. The two have performed many drum-and-dance duets in the Richmond area and have traveled to Turkey and the Balkans many times over the past few years. 

   Geoff graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BA in English. He has been a security guard, a camp counselor for at-risk youth, a special education job coach, a Richmond Police Academy recruit, an inner-city high school teacher, and a land surveyor.

   Geoff is a founding member of BALKANIZE!

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Lar Sherman (acoustic guitar, accordion, oud, riqq)  

      Lar, a Chicago native, started piano lessons at age seven, and played baritone horn, sax, and tuba in high school marching band. As an adult, he studied flamenco and classical guitar, and became involved with Richmond's bellydance community by drumming with local tribal group To The Earth for about a year. In the fall of 2007, Lar saw BALKANIZE! perform at Tribal Jam 6, became an early diehard fan, and soon joined the band.

When not working tirelessly for BALKANIZE!, Lar enjoys feta cheese.

He is now learning oud with Raffi Bandazian.

Lar joined BALKANIZE! in February 2008.

 

 

 

 

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Chip Staples ( darbuka, riqq, frame drum, tambourine, mandolin)     

   Chip discovered music at an early age, learning the way that notes, chords, and keys all fit together from his grandfather, a self-taught player of the violin, banjo, and guitar. 

   Decades later, love for a belly-dancer inspired him to take up the doumbek and learn Middle Eastern rhythms. To his surprise, he discovered a talent for playing, an interest in the music, and a true passion for playing for dancers.  This passion has expanded to include West African rhythms, Tahitian music, and Eastern European music.
   Chip plays for both the folkloric belly-dance troupe min el-Jbal el-Zarr'a and the Tahitian dance troupe Mou'a Vahine, and he is a founder and original  member of Charlottesville Area Rhythm and Dance, a non-profit organization for supporting and promoting performers and teachers who use drumming in their art.

   Chip joined BALKANIZE! in September, 2008.

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Nancy Smith ( guitar, vocals, clarinet, riqq)
  Nancy studied classical piano as a child until age twelve, when she discovered the raw energy of punk rock. Armed with the Clash Songbook, she taught herself to play guitar.
  As an adult, she was exposed to the intoxicating sounds of Eastern music at Richmond's Armenian Festival, and has since learned to dance and play in odd-meter rhythms, and sing in other languages. She has danced with the Richmond International Folkdance Club, and has also studied tribal fusion bellydance.
  Nancy is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University's illustration program, and is an accomplished artist. When not at the drawing board or at band practice, she can be found working in the kitchen at Ellwood Thompson's coffee shop. She enjoys eating her weight in baked goods, singing in the car, and making goofy faces into her own camera and the cameras of others. 
  Nancy is a founding member of BALKANIZE!; she took a sabbatical from February, 2008, to February, 2009.

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Julie Bright (vocals, tambourine)

  Julie Bright has been involved in music ever since she can remember; in the past, she has played French horn, piano, flute, piccolo, tenor sax, oboe and recorder. She has always loved singing harmony; she can still sing the harmony to every 70's pop song she heard on the radio as a child. In high school she discovered Progressive Rock and remained obsessed until many years later when she embraced the lofty musical style called Chicks With Guitars. Folk music has remained a passion; Irish folk in particular has been a longtime favorite.
  Julie is an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, where she pretends to be a 13th century Spanish Jew from Cordoba. Although she finds everything about that time and place to be fascinating, she particularly loves the Arabic-influenced cuisine, and of course, the music - the study of which inadvertently led her to discover BALKANIZE! . 
  When not learning to sing in multiple unfamiliar languages, Julie is a gardener, a novice bellydancer, an expert Hedonist, a helluva Good Cook, and the mommy of two beautiful little girls. 

  Julie joined BALKANIZE! in May, 2009.

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Dvora Baldwin ( vocals, Turkish spoons)  

   Don't be fooled by the sweet face: Dvora is pure evil.  Her hobbies include stealing the covers, preparing for disaster, being randomly inappropriate, psychologically torturing Geoff with spontaneous outbursts of "You Are My Sunshine," and changing her mind. 

   From an early age she was living wild and free. Then, just like everyone else on the planet, she grew up to be an eclectic and unique individual.  Dvora has no first name; however, she does have a jewelry box filled with cicada exoskeletons and old keys.

   With no previous experiences to prove otherwise, Dvora decided at age 36 that she could sing.  No one has yet disabused her of this notion, but she maintains high hopes.

   Dvora has been belly dancing since 1990. She is an assistant director and founding member of Richmond’s only American Tribal Style belly dance troupe To The Earth, and she performs with the Richmond chapter of Public Urban Ritual Experiment (PURE). Dvora has earned her FatChance BellyDance ATS General Skills certification and is now working towards her Vinyasa Yoga RYT certification.

   Dvora joined BALKANIZE! in July, 2008. She is currently on hiatus from the band but hopes to return soon.

 

BALKANIZE!'s previous performances include:

š May 12th, 2007 - Tribal Jam 5, Henrico County, VA.

 

š September 21st, 2007 - Richmond International Folk Dance Club gathering, Dumbarton Elementary School, Henrico County, VA.

 

š October 19th, 2007 - "An Evening With Friends" belly dance hafla with special guest percussionist Blake Methena at Pho 79, Henrico County, VA.

 

š October 20th, 2007 - Tribal Jam 6 with special guest percussionist Blake Methena, Henrico County, VA. 

 

š December 21st, 2007 - Winter Solstice Celebration at First Unitarian Universalist Church, Richmond, VA.

 

š December 31st, 2007 - BALKANIZE! opened for Rattlemouth at their annual New Years Eve World Music Dance Party with special guest percussionist Blake Methena at Art6 Gallery, Richmond, VA.

 

š January 4th, 2008 - Holiday celebration with the Richmond International Folk Dance Club, Dumbarton Elementary School, Henrico County, VA.

 

š July 14th, 2008 - Private party with the Richmond International Folk Dance Club, Henrico County, VA.

 

š August 16th, 2008 - Fundraising Event for the Richmond Peace Festival with special guest singer Dawn Layne, The Camel, Richmond, VA.

 

š September 19th, 2008 - BALKANIZE! opened for Rattlemouth at Art6 Gallery, Richmond, VA. 

 

š September 27th, 2008 - Tribal Jam 8, Henrico County, VA.  (This event will forever be known as 'Black Saturday' in BALKANIZE! lore, memorialized annually with traditional feasts of rocks and Bosnian jumping snake skins marinated in prune vinegar ... all dancing should be done on only one foot) 

 

š October 5th, 2008 - The Folk Music Dance Party at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

 

š November 1st, 2008 - HSDAA First National Specialty Show at the Wyndham Hotel, Virginia Beach, VA.

 

š December 7th, 2008 - The Folk Music Dance Party at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

 

š December 31st, 2008 - BALKANIZE! opened for Rattlemouth at their annual New Years Eve World Music Dance Party at Art6 Gallery, Richmond, VA.

 

š September 11th, 2009 - Ellwood's Coffee, Richmond, VA.

 

š November 20th, 2009 - Ellwood's Coffee, Richmond, VA.

Be humble, for you are made of dung. Be noble, for you are made of stars. - Serbian proverb