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Members Directory Online If you are a current CDSS member, you now have access to the online Members Directory. If you did not receive our 11/29/10 email about this, check your spam filters and make sure to whitelist all cdss.org addresses. Questions? See www.cdss.org/login-faq.html.From the Development Desk by Robin Hayden, Development Our annual fund appeal is underway! As you know, we count on your support for everything we do. Your year-end gift will enable us to continue providing outreach, scholarships, advice, group services, camp programs, print, media, and online resources, and much more, to the traditional dance, music, and song community. If you’ve already contributed, thanks so much. If you haven’t gotten around to it yet, no time like the present! You can mail your credit card info or check, made out to CDSS, to PO Box 338, Haydenville, MA, 01039 (be sure to specify “fund appeal”), or donate now online. It’s easy, tax deductible, and so important. As Max Newman writes in this year’s appeal, “Your support changes lives.” So true! Gift membership special offer Give the gift of CDSS! A CDSS membership makes a great gift for students, young families, new dancers, the musicians or organizers in your community -- the possibilities are endless. Take advantage of our special holiday discount: gift memberships (individual or family) are now available for $40 each. Offer extends through December 31, 2010; order by December 15 for delivery before Christmas. Award News The first 2010 Lifetime Contribution Award party -- for John Ramsay -- was held in October in St. Louis, and, as they say, a good time was had by all. Photos will be on our website soon. An article about John was in the Fall issue of the newsletter. The second 2010 LCA party -- this one for morris musician
and teacher Tom Kruskal -- will be
Saturday, April 2, 2011 at Nevins Hall in Framingham,
MA. The hall opens at 4:30 pm,
potluck tapas at 5 pm, award presentation at 6:30, followed by English country and
contra dancing. Karen Axelrod and Deborah
Kruskal are handling the details. We’ll have updates
on our website and an article in the News as the time nears, or, if you’re a Facebook
user, there’s a FB site, “Celebrate Tom!” In between all this partying, the Awards Committee is accepting suggestions for the 2011 recipient; see guidelines on our website. |
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Outreach News Leadership conferences abound! The Southeast
Dance Leadership Conference in the Greensboro,
NC area in October was a huge
success; see photograph for a
glimpse of many of the 85 attendees who enjoyed this exciting weekend packed
with useful resources and networking for dance organizers. Conferences in three
other parts of the country are currently percolating. Details coming soon! |
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Camp Notes 2011 camp programs update Last time we announced dates/program chairs for our main
weeks. We’ve now added five special courses/intensives. At OGONTZ: Teachers Training Course, led by Jane Miller, will
run concurrently with Family Week, July 30-August 6. At PINEWOODS: Singing Squares Callers Course, led by Ralph
Sweet and Nils Fredland, concurrent with American Dance and Music Week, July
30-August 6; English Dance Musicians
Course, led by Jacqueline Schwab, and Viol
Intensive, led by Mary Springfels, both concurrent with Early Music Week, August
13-20; and American Dance Musicians
Course, led by Eden MacAdam-Somer and Larry Unger, concurrent with English
& American Dance Week, August 27-September 3. For the full list of weeks, go
to CDSS Summer Programs 2011. Camp jobs reminder Each year we need help running our summer dance and music camps. If one of the following jobs appeals to you, write to Steve Howe, CDSS Office, PO Box 338, Haydenville, MA 01039 or camp@cdss.org. If you’re interested, please let us know by January 15. Job Descriptions: Sound system operators are needed at all weeks, with compensation ranging from full scholarship to paid staff, depending on the session. Office positions are available at Pinewoods, from July 16-September 3, at Timber Ridge from August 13-21, and at Ogontz from July 30-August 6. In exchange for full scholarships, we need lifeguards with CPR/First Aid certificates for all sessions, dining hall managers for all sessions, and a doctor or nurse for Family and Campers’ weeks. Some full scholarships are also available at Ogontz for kitchen and/or grounds work and some evening monitoring of sleeping children. In exchange for partial scholarships, we need assistant lifeguards and evening monitors for all Family and Campers’ weeks. |
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Newsletter News Online newsletter update Thanks to everyone who sent us their congratulations or concerns about the newsletter becoming an online-only publication next year. Two concerns in particular cropped up: receiving large attachments and a dislike of reading long documents on a computer screen. For the first, as soon as each issue is ready, we’ll send you an email announcing the posting, with a link to the issue (i.e., no inbox-busting attachments); for the second, posting the newsletter online only, while not the ideal solution for everyone, is the most affordable option to us these days. Winter issue preview The next issue, coming out in January, will include articles about revitalizing a fading dance, Toronto Morris Women’s trip to the Half Moon Sword Ale, the excitement and fears of being hired by a dance camp, and fiddler and violin maker Rodney Miller, plus the Yoga for Dancers column, advice from Max (Youth Intern) and Jeff (Group Services), a report on the latest Youth Dance Weekend, a call to CDSS members for Governing Board nominations, a dance and its tune, upcoming events, and letters and announcements. |
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Publications Reviews of On the Beat You may have seen Larry Edelman’s fine review of
our publication, On the Beat with Ralph
Sweet, in the Fall issue of the newsletter. Bill Litchman, longtime
archivist and librarian for Lloyd Shaw Foundation thinks well of the book too;
see his review. Charles Bolton's work on our website As part of our e-library, we are excited to announce that the dances and reconstructions of Charles Bolton are now available on our website. Sincere thanks to Charles for granting CDSS permission to publish his life’s work in such a way as to make it available to the widest possible audience; and to Trevor Monson, who was the instigator of the project and who tirelessly scanned every page of every book. As you explore this vast collection, you will find both well-known dances and hidden gems. Retreads is a collection of interpretations of 92 English country dances from 17th- and 18th century sources, the majority from volumes of Playford’s Dancing Master, plus selections from Johnson, Thompson, Walsh, Burbank, Griffiths, and Kynaston. The collection is in Volumes 1-9, and includes two previously unpublished dances. Each dance appears with music, the original dance instructions, Charles’s interpretations, and notes on interpretative decisions. You may search by dance title, volume and page number. Charles is also a prolific composer and choreographer for English country dancing. His nine booklets of original dances, with original or traditional music, plus more reconstructions, are also online and are searchable by dance title, volume title, volume and page number. Titles include: The Optimist, More Optimistic Dances, Not All My Own Work, More of the Same, Courtesy Turns, Occasions, People and Places, What’s New, and Round Robin. Just out -- At the Ball And this fall, we published At the Ball, Volume 6 in our companion booklets for the Bare Necessities/CDS Boston Centre English Dance Collection recordings. The Ball is the highlight of the year for an English dance community. It is an opportunity to put together a grand dance party, to dress elegantly, enjoy favorite dances, and do your best dancing to the finest music available. Volume 6 of the CDS-Boston Centre series, At the Ball commemorates the over 20 years which Bare Necessities has played for the Philadelphia Ball. The booklet is made up of a collection of 15 older, classic English country dances, all suitable for ball programs. Nine are from different editions of Playford’s Dancing Master and all of the dances are longways. Thirteen dances are duple minors (with one of them a double progression and one other improper); the remaining two dances are triple minors. A number of the dances will be easily recognized by those who frequent balls, as they are popular with dance communities across the country and make it onto programs regularly. All of the dances will fit into a ball program and should still be enjoyable to dancers in any kind of venue. Included are: Amarillis, Anna Maria, Bar a Bar, Corelli’s Maggot, King of Poland, Leather Lake House, Mount Hills, The Mulberry Garden, Never Love Thee More, The Northdown Waltz, Prince George’s Birth-Day, The Pursuit, Red House, Sadler’s Wells, and Young Widow. |
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A Question for Groups If you have a discount for your local dancers and singers, do you offer it to traveling CDSS members who present their membership card? (If not, would you consider it?) We think it would be a fine idea to publish a list, from time to time, of all groups who do so for our dance gypsy members. Please let us know! |
