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Morris Bells!
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|  Look what arrived last week!!! Morris bells are back in stock and will be available for purchase as soon as we've counted and quality-checked all 10,000 of them. (Sarah Pilzer, Sales, Services and Data Specialist, rings each one!) Huge thanks to UK producer Birmingham Stopper and the late Jeff Martell for making this possible. (Jeff's backstory on the bells, from last fall, is here.)
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Thanks, Victoria!
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Photo by Doug Plummer
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Thank you to Victoria ECD Society and Victoria Contra in British Columbia for their warm welcome and hospitality to the CDSS Exec Committee in February.
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Dance, Play, Sing (Summer 2016 Camp Season)
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| | Harmony of Song & Dance (Photo by Zoe Madonna) |
Register for camp! - We have 10 weeks this year, including 2 new sessions: The Revels Village, co-programmed by CDSS, Revels Inc., and Revels North, which will be held at Ogontz Camp in Lyman, NH, and Dance, Music & Spice which will be at Camp Cavell in Lexington, MI. Find more information about CDSS's Summer Camps here. See the online flipbook or click on one of the links below. Register! ScholarshipsFamily Week, July 16-23
(Sam Bartlett & Abby Ladin, program chairs)
Family Week, July 31-Aug 7 (Bettie & Steve Zakon-Anderson)
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Playford Assembly
| |  Our popular new book, The Playford Assembly, by Graham Christian, is in-house. See Orly Krasner's excellent review in the latest CDSS News. The book's gone international, too, with copies going to England, Belgium, Japan and Russia, in addition to our domestic and Canadian market!
In late January, Graham spoke about the book at the Library of Congress as part of the American Folklife Center's Botkin Lecture series. The talk was accompanied by dancers and musicians from the Washington, DC area; here are demonstrations of The Young Widow and News from Tripoly. The American Folklife Center will post a video of the lecture and demos later this year.
Cover illustration: Dottator et Lineator Loquitur. John B. Papworth (1775-1847). From Ackermann's Repository of Arts, 1817.
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Year of Song/Song of the Month
| |  A special feature of this year's CDSS Year of Song is a monthly song featured on our website. We've just posted a classic traditional Irish love song, "Bonnie Blue-Eyed Lassie," collected by Bess Cronin (1879-1956), and sung by Robbie O'Connell. (The song also is known as "The Top of a Mountain" and "Bonnie Blue-Eyed Nancy.") In February, we shared "Paper of Pins," a traditional children's song; it's sung by Oscar Degreenia and his sister Almeda Bray, from a 1949 field record by Helen Hartness Flanders. The year debuted with a new and original composition by Vermont singer and instrumentalist Brendan Taaffe, called "May It Fill Your Soul." Lyrics and tune notation are published with each song.
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LCA Recommendations Sought (deadline April 10)
| | Your help is needed! Do you know someone who has made a long term and exceptional contribution to the mission of CDSS? Has this contribution benefited more than one geographical area and/or generation? Has he or she worked in conjunction with CDSS for more than twenty years? If the answer is "yes" to all of these, then you may know a future recipient of the CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award (LCA).
Examples of a significant contribution include: increasing the quality of what we do by inspiration, instruction or excellent example; bringing what we do to new communities; expanding the repertoire of dance, music and/or song through scholarship or original composition; working behind the scenes or enabling others to make these contributions.
Recommendations for the 2017 Lifetime Contribution Award must be received by APRIL 10, 2016. Send them to Awards Committee chair Mary Devlin.
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Board Nominations (deadline June 30)
| | The CDSS Governing Board will have positions to be filled next year and would really appreciate your nomination suggestions. Think about yourself and the people you know in your community and beyond. We're always looking for great people who have the appropriate mix of skills, experience, time, energy, teamwork style and have a passion for traditional dance music and song. Skills that are always needed are fundraising, accounting/financial expertise or business acumen, or other board experience. There are also opportunities to serve CDSS on committees and task groups as community members.
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Pat Shaw 2017
| | English country dance composer and teacher Patrick Shuldham-Shaw (1917-1977) will be celebrated next year. Many special events are being planned for 2017 in the UK and USA to remind those who already know, and to teach the newcomers, about his work and influence both on his contemporaries and subsequent followers. Event organizers are requested to consider how they might arrange events to take account of this next year. The Pat Shaw Legacy Group is coordinating the whole program and further information and advice may be obtained from Robert Moir to whom information about events should be sent. CDSS will be participating (details later).
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CDSS News, Spring 2016
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Cover photo by
Ralph Morang
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The Spring issue is now posted online; the printed version for members will arrive by snail mail soon. Contents include:
Web extra for this issue: Dan Schatz singing "Now Is the Cool of the Day."
Cover photos are by Ralph Morang and Jeff Bary.
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Short Notes and Reminders
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- GRANT DEADLINES are February 1, June 1 and October 1. Find more information about funding here or contact Linda Henry.
- SHIPPING SCHEDULE for the Store is now twice-weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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 CDSS can receive donations from AMAZON SMILE - For eligible purchases, the Amazon Smile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to us. Go to http://www.smile.amazon.com where you'll be prompted to select a charitable organization. Be sure to select Country Dance and Song Society in Easthampton, MA.
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 Is your dance series on our DANCE MAP? Help us fill it with dances! Thanks to Jacob LeGrone for developing the map.
- CDSS is developing a list of BILINGUAL CALLERS (Spanish/English and French/English). Let us know if you call contras, squares or English country dance, teach morris and sword dances, or lead songs bilingually.
 Try out our new website, redesigned by webmaster Lynn Nichols. It has a cleaner design, easier navigation, an improved how-to section, additions to the online library, and much more.
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 how the world how much you love English and contra dance and song! Download a free RINGTONE from our website!
 Stay in touch with us on Facebook
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Thanks, MCC!
| |  The Country Dance and Song Society is funded in part this year by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. We are grateful for their support.
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Contributors to this issue include: Caroline Batson, Rima Dael, Mary Devlin, Linda Henry, Pat MacPherson, Robert Moir, Lynn Nichols, Pam Paulson and Sarah Pilzer.
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