We want you to join the conversation about who we are today, our Centennial, and our work for the future. Get involved! Be a part of honoring the past and building the future. Together we will build strong, resilient communities, and Spread the Joy of what we do through dance, music and song! Please take a few minutes to fill out the Join the Conversation form via our website.

Show the world how much you love English and contra dance and song! Download a ringtone from our website!

CDSS is launching a new online discussion forum. This is the place to have discussions about CDSS - our programs and services, our camps, our Centennial plans, our strategic direction, etc. We'll be sending out an e-blast to invite your participation later this month.

CD+S Online, the CDSS journal being reborn next year as an online publication, is accepting proposals for articles for the inaugural issue that will focus on evolution, change and future directions: 1915 to 2015 and beyond. Send your one-page proposal to editor.cds.online@cdss.org by October 31, 2014. Proposals for future issues may be sent at any time. NOTE: The October date is for proposals only; articles are not due until March 1, 2015. See our website for more information.

The CDSS Lifetime Contribution celebration for Jim Morrison will be in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday, November 22, 2014. If you're interested in attending, please contact John Wheeler and Beverly Seng or

A list of CDSS outreach grants offered for our June 1, 2014 cycle is posted on our website. If you need help creating an event or project to support your music, dance and/or song community, visit the Guidelines. Upcoming application deadlines are October 1, 2014 and February 1, 2015.

Scholarship recipients - Now that the summer camp season has passed, we'll be compiling lots of stories and photos from this year's scholarship recipients. If you have benefitted from this CDSS support, we'd love to hear from you, so please be in touch.

Got questions about conferences, grants or scholarships? Contact Linda Henry, 413-203-5467 x 105.

We're looking forward to hanging out with the 75+ dance organizers at the  Southwest Regional Organizers Conference this weekend in Albuquerque, NM. The conference is full, but we have another coming in the spring: Puttin' On The Dance 2 - Hands Across the Border (aka POTD2) will be March 20-22, 2015, in Ottawa, ON. Similar to the Southwest conference, this weekend will provide resources for dance organizers, and the program will be designed to support communities throughout eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. For more info about POTD2, see the website or email the organizers. 

Attending these conferences is an investment in your dance's future! See the website for many ways you and your group can help pay your way (including travel costs). For glimpses of previous conferences cosponsored by CDSS, click here.

Nominations for the 2015 LCA must be received by December 5, 2014. Send to awards@cdss.org or to LCA Committee chair  Mary Devlin or via snail mail to Mary at 2230 SW Sunset Drive, Portland, OR 97239. See our website for recommendation guidelines.

This is a terrific time to become a member of CDSS. In January, we will be issuing a Passport to Joy to every member, as part of the yearlong Centennial celebration.

What is the Passport to Joy? Take your passport booklet with you wherever you dance, sing or play music. Participating series or events will have a Passport to Joy sticker for you! At the end of 2015, you'll have a record of all the amazing things you did, and a really cool keepsake of this once in a lifetime celebration.

Send in your passport for verification to qualify for awesome awards for 10, 25, 50, and 100 stickers collected, to be presented in Spring 2016.

ORGANIZERS! Holding a traditional dance, music or song event in 2015? Your beloved regular series? A morris ale, Playford Ball, contra dance weekend, pub sing, international rapper sword contest, May Day celebration, Sacred Harp convention, leadership conference or musicians' workshop, family camp or community gathering? Send your 300 dpi color logo (or the name of your organization if you don't have a logo) to admin@cdss.org (put Passport to Joy in the subject line). We will include you in our List of Passport to Joy Destinations and send you a sheet of Passport to Joy stickers to distribute to participants! (You do not need to be a CDSS Affiliate to participate.)

GROUPS WITH EVENTS IN JANUARY-the sooner we hear about your event, the better!

GET YOUR PASSPORT TO JOY-Anyone who is a current member or who joins in 2015 will receive a Passport to Joy, but if you join now, you'll get yours right at the beginning of the year, and you can use it at January events! Join the regular way as a new CDSS member here. Or join through the Special Centennial Membership Offer: we're offering a complimentary NEW membership with your $100 GIFT FOR 100 YEARS!

Hey storytellers! We have so enjoyed reading your beautiful testimonials in response to the CDSS What We Believe story prompt. We welcome your essays throughout the Centennial year, so please keep 'em coming!

We're also announcing our next prompt: CDSS Local Heroes. This is a chance to recognize and celebrate the people in your song, dance or music community who are important to you. Send us a paragraph or two about those unsung heroes who bring an extra sparkle to the dance floor or just make things work in your local scene. Include a photo and we'll post it in our "wall of heroes" on the CDSS Centennial Blog.

Speaking of our Centennial Blog - check it out! This is where we are posting submissions to the CDSS Story Project as well as other news about the CDSS Centennial. Browse stories and photos and check the counter to find out exactly how many days, minutes and seconds until we kick off the beginning of our Centennial year in 2015!

We want to see your words and pictures on our blog! Visit the submission pages for What We Believe and Local Heroes to send in your story today!

• Submit to What We Believe.

• Submit to  Local Heroes.

• See Pat and Mary's newest video message!

• Read Rima's What We Believe elsewhere in this eblast and read others on our Centennial Blog.

They're confirmed and we're getting excited - whoo-hoo!

• April 25-May 1, Tucson, AZ (staff: Jaige Trudel, Adam Broome, Matthew Olwell, Carol Ormand)

• April 28-May 3, Owen Sound, ON (Sam Bartlett, Eric Schedler, Ben Smith, Louie Cromartie)

• September 26-October 3, Halifax, NS (Betsy Branch, Sue Songer, Erik Weberg, Eric McDonald, Lisa Greenleaf)

• October 4-10, Coos Bay, OR (Pearl Mueller, Julia Weatherford, Laurel Willoughby, Barbara Davis, Bob Dalsemer)

• October 21-25, Morgantown, WV (Max Newman, Leela Grace, Karina Wilson, Will Mentor)

• November 17-22, Lawrence, KS (Anna Patton, Karen Axelrod, Shira Kammen, Andrew VanNorstrand, Kalia Kliban)

Centennial Tour Stop #2:
Owen Sound, ON, April 28-May 3

(photo by Will Henry)

STAFF - The staff for the Ontario stop are musicians Sam Bartlett, Eric Schedler, Ben Smith (all from Indiana), and caller Louie Cromartie (from North Carolina). Sam, Eric and Ben are exceptional musicians and performers, patient and skilled teachers, and tradition-bearers, with an ability and willingness to respond to new ideas with creativity, enthusiasm and respect. Louie brings decades of experience to the caller's role, with a dance repertoire to meet any crowd, and the teaching skill to bring everyone on the dance floor together in a supportive and successful experience. I chose this staff to head to Owen Sound because of their skill as teachers and performers, as well as for their natural ability to nurture and support. It's a perfect match of Tour community and Tour staff, and I can't wait to see what happens when they all come together in April of 2015!

~ Nils Fredland, CDSS Centennial Tour Manager

OUR PARTNERS IN OWEN SOUND: FIDDLEFERN COUNTRY DANCERS - Since the mid 1990s, Fiddlefern Country Dancers (FCD) have hosted contra dances on first Saturdays, September through May, at St. George's Anglican Church Hall. Doors open at 7:30, with a warmup and dancing from 8-11 pm. The annual Spring Fling Dance Weekend, the first in May, wraps up the season with a three-day celebration of dance and music, with gourmet food options. The Fling has featured such highly-regarded callers as Carol Ormand, John Krumm, Nils Fredland, Ron Buchanan, Pierre Chartrand, Bev Bernbaum and Becky Hill, along with terrific contra dance music from Hot Point, Crowfoot, The Groovemongers, Domino, Genticorum, Sheesham and Lotus, and the Andre Brunet Trio. The relatively small weekend is a friendly, welcoming gathering, offering billets for out-of-town dancers and numerous opportunities to socialize and discover the community. The Owen Sound Fiddlefern Country Dancers also help promote traditional music and dance at the annual Summerfolk Music and Crafts Festival's dance area, and at other festivals and community events throughout the Grey-Bruce region of Ontario.

With a population of just under 22,000 people, the once rowdy port town of Owen Sound on Georgian Bay is just two hours north of Toronto. It was a terminus of the Underground Railroad, and earned a Cultural Capital of Canada award in 2004 for its active artistic community.

FCD believe social dance weaves together people and music to create community. The group eagerly anticipates CDSS's Centennial Tour Stop as an opportunity to host in Owen Sound some exceptional musical talent and exemplary dance leadership to invigorate the local community. See the website for more information about Fiddlefern and dance events in the region.

Information about Tour Stop #1-Tucson, AZ-was in the June 2014 eblast.

by Jeff Martell

If you are the talent buyer for your dance or group, then you know how difficult it can be to land bigger name touring bands and callers. First the band or caller actually has to be planning a tour, then there is the question of whether or not this tour is coming anywhere near you, and of course the last question, is whether or not you can afford to pay a bigger name act!

Well, the good news is that, with a little bit of proactive planning, you can exert some influence over at least two out of three of those questions! The two things that drive any touring act, whether band or caller, are routing and scheduling. Any act needs to have their last and next gigs be a reasonable distance apart, preferably a half day's travel or less. They also need to keep nights off to a minimum. An act on the road is still incurring expenses on a night off, without generating any income.

So what does all this have to do with you and your dance or coffeehouse series? Lots! If a touring band or caller has the choice of an unpaid night off, or a low paying Tuesday night gig, they'll take the gig. It is how they stay on the road, and, to be frank, it is how a lot of full time listening clubs have stayed in business. You may not be able to come close to affording "Memphis Timmy" on a Friday or Saturday night, but if he was in city A last night, and is in city B tomorrow night, and you are in town C in the middle tonight, you might just be able to make a deal, at least provided you can get a crowd out to see Timmy on a Tuesday night. Do some realistic math before booking the show though, bearing in mind just how much you can afford to lose, even if they offer a great deal!

So, what if you are not lucky enough to be in the middle of the tour? Well, then taking control of routing might be your best bet. You may not be able to get "Big Jim's Floor Shakers" to fly in and fly out for just your dance, but if you were to contact them with four dates in four cities all nicely lined up then they might just sit up and take notice, and on top of that you might just all get a better deal on the nights. (Of course you can still expect to pay more for prime nights, Friday and Saturday, than other nights, but that is just the way it is.) Greg Rohde, from Childgrove Country Dancers in St. Louis, has set up a grid which shows all the dances within eight hours of St. Louis, divided up by night of the week, month and location. He also provides contact information for all of the dance promoters on the grid. So when he contacts a band to play his dance, he can hand them the tools to line up a few nights in the area so it is worthwhile for them to come through! Some folks go even further; I know of several large scale music festivals whose buyers belong to informal buyers groups, where they share information on who is going to be touring, where and when, and many of them make offers in conjunction with other festivals to take control of routing, and save money on both talent and backline/production costs.

So, if you are hankerin' to reel in some bigger fish, get to know your neighbors! Maybe you can even form a buying group with a few other dances in your region!

Jeff Martell is the CDSS Sales and Group Services Manager and a professional musician.

Karana (photo by Diane Friedman)

by Rima Dael

As part of our Centennial Celebration, we have launched The CDSS Story Project, a growing collection of stories documenting our traditions and the people who love them. By the end of 2015 we want to have videos, photos and written stories that talk about who we were, where we danced, where we played music and where we sang in 2015. Stories are posted
on our Centennial blog and occasionally will be published in the CDSS News. For information about submitting a story, see page 9 or visit the CDSS website.

I believe that dance, music and song build family and community.

I grew up dancing, singing and acting. My husband swears he fell in love with me watching me on stage. I trained professionally to be an actress in musical theatre and as a stage manager before becoming a nonprofit administrator and teaching nonprofit management. Many of you know that I grew up overseas in Southeast Asia. I was introduced to square dancing in Thailand, English country dance through cotillion classes in Hong Kong, morris dancing by the Hong Kong Morris Men, contra dancing at summer camp in Interlocken in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, and again in college at Mount Holyoke. I continued to dance, sing and act through college and summer theatre in Western Massachusetts, then continued a professional career in theatre administration. Dance, music and song have always been a part of my life. The arts are an important part of my life and my family's life.

As a mom, I wanted to share my love of the arts with my daughter, Karana. I sang to her as a baby, and participated in Mommy and Me music and movement class. I wanted to pass on the dancing I did growing up so she spent several months in ballet class when she was younger. She was in "The Nutcracker" as a Polichinelle; she had fun but it really wasn't her thing. Sharing ballet, modern, jazz or tap is difficult because it takes a certain kind of training.

I love that when I came back to our kind of traditional dance almost three years ago, it was something I could share immediately with my daughter...and she loves it! It gives her the joy and immediacy of dancing that takes years of training in other dance forms, and I get to dance with her as a peer. My daughter can dance for the rest of her life in our communities-there is no age limit! Together we can dance and share the joy of dancing with others. The night she discovered the joy of balance and swing, she said, "Mommy, let's do this ALL the time!" It was dancing at the Red Barn at Hampshire College in Amherst, with Sarah VanNorstrand calling, with Noah and Andrew playing music, a fun night, dancing to amazing music that punctuated a memorable mother/daughter moment. Transformative!

The arts have brought my daughter joy, friendship, greater confidence and intergenerational connections to people of all ages from around the country. I am a passionate advocate for our participatory arts because it is part of who I am, who I want my daughter to be, and how we build our family.

I am passionate about the transformational power of the arts and how they create community; and how they are an outlet of expression that is universal. I believe that arts are inclusive, not exclusive. I believe...I deeply believe...in the importance of dance, music and song in my life, in my family's life, and in the lives of all communities. I believe that our participatory arts are the best because they involve everyone in the creation of the art, the creation of that unique event. There is no separation between the artist and the audience. I do believe that participatory arts change lives. It is an art form that engenders community. It is an art form that allows intergenerational participation. This is the most transformative kind of art form. Its power is astounding.

Rima Dael is Executive Director of CDSS when not dancing or supporting the other arts.

(photo by Zoë Madonna)

Pinewoods, Plymouth, MA   

July 18-25 - Family Week
(Sam Bartlett and Abby Ladin)

July 25-Aug 1 - Harmony of Song & Dance (Keith Murphy and Becky Tracy)

August 1-8 - English Dance Week
(Joanna Reiner)

August 8-15 - American Dance & Music Week (Sue Rosen)

August 15-22 - Early Music Week (TBA)

August 22-29 - Campers' Week (Margaret Bary)

Ogontz, Lyman, NH 

August 1-8 - Family Week (Bettie and Steve Zakon-Anderson)

August 8-15 - CDSS/Revels Week (Paddy Swanson)

Timber Ridge, High View, WV

August 9-16 - Adult & Family Week (Janine Smith)

Staff and class info will post on our website later.

As you may have heard, beginning in 2015, our Pinewoods season will not include English & American Dance Week as we consolidate our weeks there from seven to six. This difficult decision was announced in mid-August. We have posted FAQs to help answer questions, clear up misinformation, and give you an understanding of why the decision was made. Other documents include a letter from David Millstone (reprinted below); CDSS: Strategic Direction 2014-2017, and CDSS Camp Income & Expenses. We are very sorry that how we communicated the programming decision caused anger and hurt feelings; it was not our intent to do so and we apologize.

Our thanks to those who have expressed their support and concerns; if you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask - email office@cdss.org or call 

Rima Dael, CDSS Executive Director.

Dear friends of CDSS,

The CDSS staff has posted a  FAQs document that provides additional information and answers some of the questions that have been raised this past week about the announced changes in CDSS camps. I apologize in advance for the length of my comments below; I haven't found a way of saying this more concisely.

Camp has been a central focus of CDSS throughout much of the organization's history, and I think it worth putting changes in perspective. Back in the day, one could say that for many members camp was CDSS. And "Camp" meant Pinewoods; it was the sole venue. Through the 1960s, Pinewoods was the one place where people danced morris, under the watchful eye of May Gadd, Cecil Sharp's chosen representative.

Over the years, things changed. Morris dancers had the temerity to form their own teams (gasp!). A new phenomenon called contra dancing started spreading out from its New England roots, and CDSS invited contra callers to Pinewoods. (It's worth noting that this decision and the style of dancing itself ruffled the feathers of some stalwart CDSS members.) In time, Dance Week I and Dance Week II were reshaped into the current menu of offerings. Pinewoods weeks for families filled, and CDSS created new camps in West Virginia and New Hampshire, in the same way that we now have an active task group working to create a camp of some sort in the Midwest. In short, CDSS has a long history of adapting its camp offerings to meet changing needs.

Camp, broadly considered, has been a topic of lengthy discussions at the Board's recent Executive Committee meetings in Iowa (November, 2013), Pittsburgh (February, 2014), and at the full Board's meeting in April of 2014. By "lengthy," I mean "lasting many hours," and "camp" as a topic includes many complex and interrelated aspects. One very specific and unfortunate fact has been clear: enrollment at our Pinewoods camps has been dropping, first gradually and then dramatically this year. Having adopted a budget for 2014, the Board subsequently felt the need to adopt revised budgets on two occasions to take projected shortfalls into account. The Board is, after all, charged with the fiduciary responsibility of keeping the organization financially stable, and it is a responsibility that Board members take seriously.

Keep in mind, please, that CDSS, like other program providers at camps, has to guarantee payment for a specified minimum number of beds. If enrollment is low, we have to pay for that minimum, even if our numbers fall below. This year, as the Board looked at projected enrollments for the summer, it appeared that four weeks would fall below those minimums, a huge financial hit for our organization.

At the annual meeting in April, among the questions raised was whether, indeed, CDSS should run camps. After all, there are numerous weekends throughout the country and even some weeklong camps. The strong feeling of the Board was that, yes, camp programs are a vital part of what we do as an organization and we need to continue to offer them. At the same time, we need camp programs that are solvent.

In the face of declining enrollments, something had to be done. We tried to see if there was flexibility with Pinewoods, and proposed several ideas that would have reduced our financial risk. The manager and Board of PCI, which operates the camp, understandably did not agree with our proposals. After all, PCI, as a nonprofit organization in its own right, has its own finances to consider. So the decision was made to consolidate our seven weeks at Pinewoods to six contiguous weeks at the same time as we start a partnership with Revels to open a new camp at Ogontz.

Some have said that CDSS should have done more to consult with its members. I'd say that this is what we do consistently. We have an unusually large Governing Board, twenty-three members from throughout the US and Canada. In addition to geographic spread, members of the Board are passionate about different activities, whether that be English country dance, contras, rapper or longsword, morris dance, songs, early music, squares, and much more. Staff members share those interests, and in the last year Steve Howe has been working closely with a group of advisors specifically selected to look at issues related to camp. Since she joined CDSS in 2012, Rima alone has talked with hundreds of members, at camp or in conversations elsewhere. We have results from three separate membership surveys. We talk to communities whenever we have a traveling meeting of the Executive Committee-next up, Oklahoma City and then Louisville. In short, we are continually talking to people and sharing what we learn.

On a personal level, English & American Week has rich meaning for me; it was at that camp, in 1987, when I fell in love with English country dance. Friends had been telling me, "Try it! You'll like it!" As a hard-core contra dancer, I had tried it, on several occasions, and I didn't like it. But that week, surrounded by folks who liked both styles, danced both well, and taught patiently, immersed in the magic of the music and the place... that week changed my life. Am I sad to see it go? Of course. For that matter, I'd be sad to see any of our programs disappear, but something needed to change and this decision was the one that seemed to make the best sense.

One more story: At Campers' Week some years ago, the program director dared to suggest that the group consider changing the Pied Piper song. Talk about an uproar! You'd think that the proposal was to eliminate swimming in Long Pond. Long-time campers, chief among them the teens and the early twenty-somethings, were vocal in their opposition to any such change.

I'm not suggesting that this is a comparable issue, but it's clear that CDSS members care deeply about maintaining the experiences that have meant a great deal to them. As I gently remove some of the barbs that have been hurled our way, and take solace in the calm words of encouragement, I am happy that so many care about these rich traditions. With the continued support of our thousands of members, I look forward to positive steps that will keep CDSS able to offer vibrant programs into the future.

As we move into our Centennial year in 2015, I'm eager to see what camp programs will draw my attention. I can easily imagine a strong English dance component at American Week, or vice versa. For that matter, my wife and I had a wonderful time at Harmony of Song & Dance Week in 2013 and we delighted this year in taking two grandsons with us to Ogontz. I have no doubt that our program directors will put together terrific programs with top-notch talent, and I look forward to sharing music, dance and song with many of you at one or more of next summer's programs.

~ David Millstone, CDSS President

The FAQs, CDSS: Strategic Direction 2014-2017, as well as David's letter, are on our website. If you're not online and would like a copy of the documents by email or snail mail, please let us know, office@cdss.org. If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask: office@cdsss.org or rima@cdss.org.

Wasatch Wiggle, Salt Lake City, UT, 2013 (photo by Doug Plummer)

Next deadline for articles, letters, etc. is November 1; send to the Editor. To place an ad in the paper version, see the guidelines on our website.

It's autumn and we have books, recordings, morris bells, DVDs, t-shirts, bags, water bottles and more. Drop by during business hours (Monday-Friday, 9-5) or shop online between your leaf-raking, pencil-sharpening and costume-making chores.  

Whether you are a traditional contra, techno contra, square or English dancer; practice morris, rapper, longsword or garland traditions; perform traditional or early music and song-you belong in the CDSS network! Your membership ensures that CDSS can continue to support, advocate, educate, connect and sustain the dance and music traditions that we cherish for ourselves and for our families for the next hundred years. Read more about membership or sign up today! 

As we began this eblast, we end it by inviting you to join the conversation about who we are today, our Centennial, and our work for the future. Be a part of honoring the past and building the future and Spread the Joy of what we do through dance, music and song! Please take a few minutes to fill out the Join the Conversation form on our website.