Chinese Culture Weekend Staff

We are excited to offer returning favorites and some new additions to this year's 5th Annual Chinese Culture Weekend! Please check back for frequent updates and changes! 

This year's offerings include:Tai Chi sword dancing, dim sum cooking, a tea ceramony, Chinese character painting, mask and kite creations, mah jongg, 40 foot dragon, "Chinese History for Dummies," and tumbling...  Please read below to learn more! (All staff and activities are subject to change)  

Cai Xi Silver - Painter, t'ai chi master, art instructor, and language instructor, Cai has been giving Chinese cultural performances for more than ten years. She is a graduate from Shanghai Drama Institute. Cai has been awarded a Fellowship and residency at Vermont Studio Center for July 2009. She says: "Everyone is born an artist. Art is everywhere. Learning through art, we achieve and enrich our lives."

Cai Xi Silver will be returning to Chinese Culture Weekend again this summer to offer Tai Chi sword dancing as well as Tai Chi. She will also help us work on beginning characters and illustrations as well as creating our own "pearls" for the 40 foot dragon! She’ll also do songs, exercises and much more.

Duo Xi - Duo is Cai Silver's sister and will be teaching authentic dim sum cooking and on Sunday morning she is planning to offer a tea ceremony with dim sum. Cai's daughter Leah will also join us for Chinese Cultural Weekend and she will assist her mother and aunt.

Gerry Gatz -  We are teaming up with the Asian Society Outreach program at the University of Vermont once again this year. Gerry will offer two “create your own dragon” art activities this year. The first will be a simple, yet beautiful dragon puppet designed to be a success for the younger artist yet fulfilling for older creators as well. Made from oak tag and Popsicle sticks, it’s all in the decoration. The second “dragon” art project involves taking a drawn image of a dragon, embellishing it, and then folding it fan-like to make a beautiful 3D image.

Gerry Gatz is the Curriculum Coordinator for UVM’s Asian Studies Outreach Program and is the Director of their Institute in Thailand as well. Gerry taught art for many years and presents workshops for teachers, students, and anyone else interested in the arts of Asia.

Heather Ni - A member of our Camp Common Ground community, Heather Ni, will be joining us this year at Chinese Culture Weekend all the way from Luxembourg. She will be doing cooking and kids activities. She teaches Chinese culture at a camp in Maine each summer, so she has plenty of experience!  

Joe Ng - Joe will be returning this summer as well and recycling some of his talks from the previous years. His day job keeps him too busy to keep creating new presentations for us but we couldn’t do CCW without him! So he’ll be offering his “Chinese History for Dummies” from two years ago and another presentation that has yet to be decided . . .

Kim Dunkley –  After a long history in outdoor ed/rec with many ages, Kim has settled down as a pre-school educator in Morrisville, VT. She still makes time for the important stuff like traveling, skiing and standing on my head. She is looking forward to sharing some of her silliness and playing with folks at CCW this summer in Starksboro.

Rhoen Pruesse-Adams - Rhoen is a freshman in college at NYU, who enjoys learning about economics and mandarin. He loves meeting new people, making new friends, and eating vegetarian food. As he has done over the past four years, Rhoen will be our resident Mah Jongg instructor for the weekend. Get ready to play!

Tessa Holmes – Tessa specializes in cooking vegetarian cuisine for large groups and individuals. She was head cook at the Heartwood Institute in CA for several years before coming to CGC. She also shares a strong interest in the arts, yoga, and photography. This will be her 8th summer at CGC!