Mark Kanazawa was exposed to folk dancing at a very early age, doing his first Salty Dog Rag when he was thirteen. However, he started folk dancing in earnest in the 1970s at Earlham College in Indiana. He has danced with various groups around the country, including groups in Amherst, Stanford, Berkeley, Illinois, and Washington DC. He currently dances regularly at Tapestry Folkdance Center in Minneapolis. He has also been in two folkdance performing groups – Amherst International Folkdancers and Zavrti, a performing group in the Bay Area in California. He has also done extensive teaching of folkdancing, at Earlham, Amherst, Stanford, and at Tapestry. He has also taught several times at SNOPA.