Country Dance & Song is Back!

As part of the CDSS Centennial, this peer-reviewed journal, which appeared in print from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, will return as CD+S Online in late 2015. CD+S Online will be an opportunity for those who love and think seriously about our arts to present their research in an entertaining and readable way for readers around the world interested in traditional dance, music, and song rooted in England and North America. Articles in CD+S Online will be longer and more detailed than those found in its sister publication, CDSS News, and will represent an exploration of the past, a celebration of the present, speculations as to the future, and a means for future generations to mark the status and development of our shared art form at any given point in time. Allison Thompson will be editor.*

Call for paper proposals!

We invite you to submit a proposal for a paper for the Centennial issue. The 350-word (one page) proposals are due August 15, 2014. Decisions will be made and authors informed by September 15. Papers are due March 1, 2015. The articles should not exceed 3,500 words, and we encourage the incorporation of sound or video clips. The author(s) will be responsible for obtaining all appropriate permissions. Send your proposal to editor.cds.online@cdss.org.

Here's the theme of the inaugural issue

CDSS was founded in 1915 as the American Branch of the English Folk Dance Society. At that time there was a handful of active groups. Today there are hundreds of active member groups and thousands of individual members, participating in traditional dance, music, and song rooted in England and North America. How did we get to this level of vibrant participation? How has the form of the art that you are most deeply engaged in changed over this 100-year period? Where is it going?

After the inaugural issue, future articles will be published on a rolling basis. Submit your proposal on any topic of interest to our readers at any time: editor.cds.online@cdss.org. Articles in future issues will address a wide range of topics including collecting traditional songs or dances, incorporating traditional materials in a K-12 curriculum, working collaboratively with other arts organizations, and more!

*Allison Thompson is a musician, English country dance leader, and historian whose works include May Day Festivals in America, 1830 to the Present, and the edited collections of dances Legacy, The Blind Harper Dances, and Dances from Barnes Two. With her bandmates in Amarillis, she has recorded three CDs of tunes for dancing and listening.