CDSS Governing Board
The geographically-diverse Board is listed below. Correspondence for them may be sent to office@cdss.org. For photos and bios of Board members, click on the individual names.
(* indicates a brand new board member starting a term in May 2010)
Officers
| Name | State | Term Ends | |
|---|---|---|---|
Bruce Hamilton
Bruce Hamilton (Menlo Park, CA) was kicked out of the choir in Grade 3. He spent 20 years believing he couldn't sing, and another 20 before he found out how much fun it is, and how egalitarian. Meanwhile Swarthmore College woke up a dancer he didn't know was there, and he quickly became one of the crazies -- dancing 5 nights a week, demonstration teams, helped get English country dance going in San Diego, helped start the Royal Scottish CDS branch there, and started an English country dance group and a morris team when he moved to the Bay Area.. As that cooled he got interested in training teachers -- first Scottish, then English, which he still enjoys and is still learning how. He got another awakening when Tom Siess brought John Carver's principles of governance to the CDSS board. First learning about them and then applying them under Tom's time as president, Bruce saw that a board could in fact make a difference. He recently retired from his career as a computer scientist at Agilent Technologies in order to spend more time calling and keeping up with his CDSS committee work (eek!). |
CA | 2012 | President |
Jenny Beer
Jenny Beer (Lansdowne, PA) calls Philadelphia her home dance community. She leads English country dances and, less often, traditional community dances and Scottish country dances. Occasionally you’ll see her playing dance piano, and she crafts a new dance now and again. A member of CDSS since 1982, Jenny started “country dancing” the second day of freshman week in Indiana and happily joined groups wherever life has taken her since: northern Japan, Vermont, Delaware, Berkeley, CA, Osaka, Japan. In earlier incarnations she was an avid contra dancer, and the first dance she ever wrote was “spinning Jenny,” which had three swings. More recently, she had a great time leading Swarthmore College’s folkdance class for 13 years. Jenny loves the messiness and pleasure of getting people to participate together, and looks forward to helping CDSS support the groups that make participatory dance and song happen in their local communities. On the organizational side, she has more than a decade of experience running dance group websites, enjoys drawing new dancers, musicians and volunteers into the community, has helped with redesigning bylaws, and has taken on dozens of other dance organizational jobs. Jenny also brings to the Board skills from her consulting practice in facilitation, conflict resolution and cross-cultural communication. |
PA | 2013 | Vice President* |
David Chandler
David Chandler (Metuchen, NJ) is an example of the value of recycling within CDSS. Secretary of the CDSS Executive Committee for a number of years back when the organization was headquartered in New York City, he brings both an insider's and outsider's perspective to today's CDSS governance. He first did country dancing at Antioch College in the early 1960s and then took it seriously starting in the early '70s when he moved to New Jersey. He was an early member of the Greenwich Morris Men (long retired), a member of the American Country Dance Ensemble (CDSS's bicentennial dance performance group), called English and contras in New York and Princeton (where he planted the small seed that grew into an amazing organization under the skillful care of many others), was a member of an early Long Range Planning Committee for CDSS, was a longtime member of the Gadd/Merrill Fund Committee, served as a CDSS representative to the Pinewoods Camp Board, was Treasurer of Country Dance New York, and is now its President-Elect. He recently retired after many years as Director of the Rutgers College Counseling Center. Since joining the Board in 2008 he has been on the Ends Task Group, the Bylaws Revision Task Group, the Governance Task Group, and the Long Range Plan Task Group and is a member of the Personnel Committee. His wife, Beverly Francis, is a well-known caller, Jane Austen-ite, and school librarian. In addition to doing the work of secretary, he brings a continuing concern for the necessity of supporting the transition to new generations of dancers and musicians, and the usefulness of looking both ahead and behind. |
NJ | 2011 | Secretary |
Rhonda Beckman
Rhonda Beckman (Dallas, TX) – incumbent. Rhonda is a dancer’s dancer: she enjoys contra, waltz, country-western, English, Scandi, and swing. For many years she also did international folk dance and was a board member of the Texas International Folk Dancers and president of Dallas International Folk Dancers. Rhonda is known as a wild woman on the floor, which is a complete turnabout from her starchy role as a CPA in real life. She learned hambo by being picked up during the turns for a year by a kindly gentleman in Cincinnati. She grew up in Cleveland but much to her dismay didn’t discover contra dancing till about 1997 in Dallas. She is a committed, inclusive member of the Dallas group, has served on the board, and has worked on and run the Dallas weekend dance, When In Doubt Swing, for several years. She is married to Tim Beckman, sadly a non-dancer but a good guy, who patiently helps as host for all the hospitality Rhonda extends to musicians, callers, and dancers for any and all dance events sponsored by North Texas Traditional Dance Society. She and Tim have two grown sons, Joey in LA and Jeffrey in Indiana, which gives her more places to stay as she traverses the world in her quest for more dance. . |
TX | 2013 | Treasurer* |
Board Members at Large
Lynn Ackerson
Lynn Ackerson (El Cerrito, CA) started contra dancing in 1998 when a friend thought she needed to quit spending so much time at work and "get a life." Six months later, she was at her first dance camp (a weeklong one), and a year after that she sat in on the callers' workshop at the same dance camp. She called her first evening in 2000, and now calls on both coasts. She has programmed an English and American dance weekend and currently programs a monthly dance in Oakland, CA. Since 2000, she has made annual treks to the east coast for NEFFA, American Week at Pinewoods, and as often as possible, the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend. When not on the road, Lynn works as a biostatistician, doing medical research. |
CA | 2012 |
Jackie Algon
Jackie Algon (Wilton, CT) has loved dancing her whole life, but she took a 20-year-plus hiatus to focus on multitasking schoolwork, career, and childraising. Near the end of the century, having finally finished her doctorate and with her daughter in med school and married, she went out to dance. She came to English country dance through international folk dance in 2000, danced in New York and New Jersey, and danced weekly with the Reel Nutmeg performance troupe in Hartford, CT. When Jackie retired at the end of 2003 as Director of Information Policy and Records Management of Merck & Co., Inc. where she'd worked for 34 years, she and her partner Carl Andersen moved to Connecticut, where they reconstructed their home to include a dance space. Jackie served on the Country Dance New York Board, is in her second term as CDSS Board Member at large, and is in her first term as CDSS representative to the Pinewoods Camp, Inc. Board. She was a founding board member of Merck's childcare center and developed the first after-school childcare program in Millburn, NJ. Her joy comes from dancing, fiber arts (knitting, spinning, weaving), gardening (she's a Master Gardener through the UConn MG Program), cooking, being with friends and family, and serving the various communities in which she participates. She's counting down to 2014 when she hopes to introduce her (now 5-month old) granddaughter to Family Week at Pinewoods! |
CT | 2012 |
Jill Allen
Jill Allen (Lawrence, KS) learned to love dance in college. She began taking nursing classes but much preferred spending time at the university dance studio. She eventually ended up with a bachelor’s degree in dance performance in 1979. She came upon her first local contra dance in the early 80s, oblivious to what it was or how deeply it would change her life. It was love at first step, and she never looked back. Her tap dancing became clogging, and soon she learned to call for dances. With experience in dance education, Jill was a natural boss on the dance floor. Soon after that she met a fiddler, got married and quit her day job to pursue a career in calling, along with motherhood. Some early piano training came in handy and she also began playing for dances. Jill has been on the organizing board for local dances and chief organizer for dance weekends. She has been the force behind the Lawrence Family Dance for nearly 14 years. Recently she co-created the Lawrence English Dance, and a new community dance series called the Uptown Hoedown. She has been a regular at CDSS camps, partly because of her two children who have also caught the dance and music bug, and partly because of the many ideas and the material she brings home to her community each year. She is a member of the band Fox on the Run with her husband Greg. She loves to see people of all ages moving to music and loves to be a part of making it happen |
KS | 2013* |
Carol Barry
Carol Barry (Edmond, OK) began dancing in 1984 when a friend invited her to a local dance. She was enchanted immediately and has been dancing ever since. She has been active in contra, English and Scottish country dance, holding office, serving on committees, and planning workshops. She is active in the Oklahoma City International Folk Dancers, coordinating the teaching program, serving on the board, and chairing dance camp weekends. She is a founding member of and regular caller for Scissortail Traditional Dance Society. Most recently she has formed a "small but enthusiastic" English country dance group in Oklahoma City. Carol is a retired university librarian, enjoying to the fullest a traveling, dancing and family-filled life. She considers community dance to be in the top tier of activities that enrich the body, mind and spirit of its participants and the communities/extended families they form. |
OK | 2011 |
Bev Bernbaum
Bev Bernbaum (Toronto, ON) has been a folk festival junkie since 1977. She found contra dancing quite by accident at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in 1996 and was immediately hooked. She joined the Toronto Country Dancers (TCD) that fall, was at her first dance weekend by Thanksgiving and at Pinewoods by the following summer. Bev has held positions as the communications person, treasurer and president for TCD over the years. A fellow dancer suggested she’d make a good caller, and in 1998, she made her debut for a group of drunken students at a college pub! Since then, Bev has continued to call all over Ontario and across the United States, at local dances, dance weekends, festivals and camps. In 2006, Bev picked up the banjo and knew it was a match made in heaven. She’s been playing old-time claw hammer style since then and attends Appalachian festivals and camps regularly. In the last couple of years, she’s started dancing modern western squares and English country regularly. In 2009, Bev was the staff caller at a camp primarily focused on music and singing, and has since joined the weekly song circle. When she’s not dancing, calling, playing or singing, Bev is an information systems consultant in healthcare. |
ON | 2013* |
Nancy Boyd
Nancy Boyd (South Hadley, MA) started English country dancing in 1989 in New York City. She quickly added contra and sword to her dance schedule, danced with Christine Helwig’s “Chelsea Country Dancers” performance group, served as secretary to the CD*NY board, chaired a Playford Ball and worked on many committees. English remains her favorite, but Nancy also enjoys contra and took her first Scottish classes in 2009 at Pinewoods. Nancy coordinated concession sales and volunteers for the NY Revels for years until leaving NYC for retirement in western Mass. in 2008. She and husband Art Munisteri both enthusiastically serve on local dance committees and regularly attend English dances as well as tons of special events. Among Nancy’s interests are developing the upcoming generations of dancers, leaders, musicians, and group organizers to ensure the healthy future of the dispersed dance community and the balance of old and new traditions; she believes an effective CDSS and well organized volunteers are essential to accomplishing this. In her work life, Nancy was the Deputy Director of the New York District of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) where she spent 30+ years managing people and programs that exist to eradicate employment discrimination. She is goal and action oriented, makes lists for everything and is somewhere between a “big picture” and a “right now” person. She enjoys event planning, problem solving, working with others, and has experience organizing and training student and adult volunteers to accomplish specific objectives and to feel they get as much as they give. |
MA | 2013* |
Jan Elliott
Jan Elliott (Woods Hole, MA) started dancing and playing folk music at a young age, thanks in part to teachers connected with Pinewoods Camp, where she first attended Dance Week II in 1974. She founded a morris team in high school and danced her way through college, doing contra, English, ritual and international. After several years on the music faculty at Boston University she moved to Los Angeles to complete a degree in dance ethnology; Ph.D. studies subsequently took her to Oxfordshire, UK. Now returned to her roots on Cape Cod, she teaches music, plays for English country dancing, performs with several early music ensembles and remains associated with numerous morris and sword teams, from Woods Hole to Canada to England. She is active in youth issues and chairs the New Generation Initiative committee for Pinewoods, closing the circle begun as a wide-eyed teen 35 years ago. |
MA | 2013* |
Nan Evans
Nan Evans (Portland, OR) is a dance organizer and leader of English country and contra dances who brings a commitment to the joy of dance and the magic of community. She is well known throughout the Northwest and beyond for her clear teaching and a warm and welcoming style -- characteristics that have served the Portland English dance community well, especially during its developing years when she organized and led the regular English dances and, with a team, created the popular Portland English Country Ball. Nan lives in a co-housing community where decisions that affect the community are made by consensus and where she and her cellist husband, Fred Nussbaum, hold informal dances and concerts in the community building great room. In her work life, Nan retired from the State of Oregon, where she was the Director of the Department of Land Conservation and Development, and is now the Director of Government Relations at the Oregon chapter of The Nature Conservancy. |
OR | 2012 |
Gaye Fifer
Gaye Fifer (Charlottesville, VA) has been an active contra dancer for the past 28 years, first in St. Louis, MO, then living in Charlottesville, VA and traveling all around. She has been an organizer for her local dances in Charlottesville, serving on the board and co-chairing their fall festival committee numerous times. In addition, Gaye has been calling both locally and around the country at contra weekends. She is known for her energy, enthusiasm and sense of fun. Gaye's other dance passion is American folk waltz. For the past 6 years she has taught a regular ongoing waltz class and hosted a monthly open waltz. The waltz community keeps growing, and an intermediate level class has been added, a second monthly waltz is in the works, and new teachers are being groomed. Gaye and her partner, Wayne Albright, have also been leading waltz workshops at contra dance weekends for the past 6 years. When not dancing/waltzing/ calling, you can find Gaye teaching 4-year olds in the Charlottesville City Schools, singing in a women's choir |
VA | 2011 |
Brian Gallagher
Brian Gallagher (Indianapolis, IN) did some asking around and found that, after visiting all of the various local contras and contra dance weekends, the most commonly used name to refer to him was "Pajama Boy." Upon further research, he remembered that he usually wears "pajama pants" -- loose fitting and relaxed pants --when he dances. Since starting contra dancing in Greenfield, MA in 2001, shape note singing at NEFFA 2006, and English country dancing at Pinewoods 2007, Brian, who considers himself to be a very new participant in many folk traditions, has danced from Maine to South Carolina, and from Washington, DC, to St. Louis, MO. He thoroughly enjoys different types of music, dances, and dancers. More recently, Brian has been very involved encouraging the next generation of contra dancers -- that is, younger dancers -- to become involved in their local communities. He started the Facebook group Contra Dancers, which has over 1,400 members across the country. On this national forum, he has helped to drive many discussions geared towards encouraging younger folks to dance, to become involved in their communities, and to ask for help in attracting younger dancers to their community. Brian co-led a workshop at NEFFA 2007 titled "Contra Dancing: The NEXT Generation," where participants discussed techniques to expand local dance communities to younger dancers. He serves on the CDSS Youth Task Force. |
IN | 2011 |
Wendy Graham
Wendy Graham (Durango, CO), self-described "dance maniac," has been dancing since 1991 when divine intervention sent her on a Danish-American Exchange youth tour with Barbara Harding, who later got Wendy hooked on Christmas Country Dance School in Berea, Kentucky. Now, with an infectious enthusiasm and smile, Wendy serves up delicious and nutritious contra, square, Appalachian, English, swing, and salsa dance for all ages and skill levels. A favorite caller of the southwest four corners, she travels nationally and went "international" at the 2009 Sidmouth, England Folk Week. Both the young and young-at-heart enjoy her Paper Plate dances that incorporate non-traditional dance forms, like disco and the Rockettes' kick line. Wendy helps organize Durango, Colorado's monthly contra dance series, FolkMADness (New Mexico), and Stellar Days & Nights (Colorado) dance weekends. Wendy will share her marketing skills and passion for continuing the tradition with the CDSS board. Find out where in the world Wendy is or watch a hip-hop-inspired contra dance online at www.folkmads.org/wendy.html. |
CO | 2012 |
Scott Higgs
Scott Higgs (Wayne, PA) fell head-over-heels in love with dancing in 1975, taking up English, Scottish, contra, and morris all at once. Since then, he has led contras and English country dances in 26 states, three Canadian provinces, and five foreign countries. These travels connect him with enthusiastic dancers and organizers in all corners of the dance world -- from whom he learns an amazing range of perspectives on dancing and community. Scott has been program director or staff member for several of CDSS's summer camp programs and has led dancing at over 100 weekend and other weeklong programs. At home, he participates actively in many dance groups as board member, organizer, caller, dancer, and (occasional) musician. As the leader of a dance series that stretches back 55 years, Scott understands and respects tradition, and knows how to sustain the vital energy of a group that evolves over time. As co-founder of a one-year old morris team, Scott knows how to collaborate with others to develop something dynamic and new. As a board member, he applies his experience and creative energy to help CDSS flourish, now and in the years ahead. In the few hours that he is not dancing, Scott is a computer consultant, focusing primarily on database management. |
PA | 2011 |
Debbie Jackson
Debbie Jackson (Ypsilanti, MI) is very active with the Ann Arbor Council for Traditional Music and Dance. She runs her own independent consulting practice for nonprofit management and specializes in nonprofit governance, succession planning and strategy development. She plays and sings a wide range of musical styles ranging from bluegrass to contra to English country dance to swing standards. She currently is the pianist for the contra/ECD band Dr. Grangelove and the English band, Childgrove. Her earliest music work was done for the National Songwriter's Guild, where she recorded over 200 demo recordings. She has been a Music Director at folk camps, family leadership camps and also for two theater productions. She is a composer of tunes and songs and the creator of dance happenings like the original "World's Longest Contra Line" and many others, regularly adding to the variety and fun of dancing in Southeastern Michigan. Michigan Dance Heritage recently presented her with its first Les Raber Memorial Award, "for her many contributions as musician, singer, teacher, and community leader for traditional music, song, and dance throughout Michigan." She is an avid photographer, traveler and volunteer. |
MI | 2011* |
Linda Lieberman
Linda Lieberman (Ames, IA) began dancing in the late 1980s when a friend wanted to start a dance group at the art center where she worked as a potter. She volunteered to be responsible for the door and was immediately drawn into dancing. She has been part of a flatfoot clogging team, called at barn dances and community dances, led dancing in schools and English and Scottish country dance groups. During several visits to Australia, Linda called at bush dances and played at the Australian National Folk Festival. She plays in the Onion Creek Band, Cecil's Harp, and Widdershins at various venues around the Midwest and in Australia. She and her husband, Gary, who are avid participants at dance events on both coasts and beyond, have created three books of their original dance tunes and are in the process of putting together a fourth book. Linda is one of the organizers of the Central Iowa Traditional Dance and Music Festival, now in its 12th year, and has organized balls, concerts, leadership workshops, music workshops, and various other social events since the early 1990s. She has been on the boards of local Arts Centers and other nonprofit organizations. She has been instrumental in getting grant monies for various dance events in Iowa. Ames High School in the mathematics department is where you will find her most days during the school year, where one of her favorite subjects to teach is hands-on geometry. |
IA | 2013 |
Carol Marsh
Carol Marsh (Greensboro, NC) came to English country dance by way of Baroque dance (the topic of her dissertation), and she remains fascinated by the relationship between the two dance types. Although retired from teaching at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, her research activities continue. Current topics include the use of country dances in theatrical contexts (18th-century operas and plays) and compiling a checklist of 18th-century continental collections of English country dances. Carol is a regular caller at the Sun Assembly weekly dance in Durham, NC, and for the past four years has organized the Spring DanceFest, an English country dance weekend with a guest caller. She has taught ECD classes at Pinewoods and at various early music workshops. Her administrative experience includes serving as treasurer for both the Society of Dance History Scholars and the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, and chairing the program committee for the 2000 mega-conference “Dancing in the Millennium.” As a professional viola da gamba player she has performed and taught in Europe and the U.S.; she is founder and director of the Piedmont Consort of Viols. Her biggest regret: not having discovered rapper sword dancing 40 years ago. |
NC | 2013* |
David Means
David Means (Seattle, WA) had two left feet until the age of 35, when Bruce Hamilton convinced him that if he could walk, he could dance. He was active in the San Francisco Bay Area English and contra dance community for many years, and served as a member of the Playford Ball committee there for a few years. After moving to Seattle in 1991, he joined the dance community there and has found a calling as a dancer who practices non-verbal indications to make the dance flow more smoothly and comfortably for new dancers as well as those more experienced. In the last few years, he has served as Secretary for the Seattle Ball, bringing major improvements to the collaboration tools available to the committee, and setting up 21st-century communication procedures between the organizers and the dance community. Away from dancing, he has had a full career as a computer engineer, surviving a couple of start-up experiences, and is now keeping himself amused by building and repairing websites for customers throughout the world. |
WA | 2013* |
Pat Petersen
Pat Petersen (Durham, NC) first encountered English country dance in the 1970s in Chicago, where her hopelessness with Hole in the Wall did not deter her enthusiasm and her love of the combination of music and movement. After moving to New York, utter confusion with her first triple minor still left her undaunted, and she plunged into English, sword and morris classes with eagerness. Before long, she began teaching and playing for ECD at early music workshops. Pat has been dancing, teaching and playing for ECD for more than 25 years, on both coasts and as far afield as Australia. Her love of teaching includes making dances fun and accessible to nervous newcomers as well as challenging more experienced dancers. As a longtime member of and teacher for Sun Assembly, a gender-neutral ECD group, she believes strongly in dance as a builder of community, respect, connection and awareness. In her work life, Pat is a recorder and early music performer and teacher. She directed an early music vocal ensemble for 20 years, and has been known to play a mean banjo-uke with an old-time band. She has served on the boards of many organizations, including the American Recorder Society and local dance and recorder groups. She was for many years the assistant director of Amherst Early Music, and continues to serve on its Executive Committee. Pat is the Director of the Mountain Collegium early and traditional music workshop. |
NC | 2011 |
David Smukler
David Smukler (Syracuse, NY) is a dancer, caller, musician, and dance composer with eclectic tastes that include old and new dances alike. David calls regularly for English and American country dances in New York State and is a member of the Bassett Street Hounds, a Border morris team. For many years, David has been the staff "historian" for the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, recording what happens there each year in a syllabus that is made available online. He is a longtime member of the board of the Syracuse Country Dancers, and has been heavily involved in organizing such events as their Phylla Mae Fall Fest, annual callers gatherings, and the contra dance prom. David is also, along with David Millstone, the author of the CDSS-published book Cracking Chestnuts, based on a series of columns published in the CDSS News; it explores some favorites from the living tradition of classic American contras. When not dancing, he teaches college courses related to inclusive education and disability studies. |
NY | 2012 |
Stephen Stiebel
Stephen Stiebel (Mebane, NC) was introduced to contra dancing at a friend's wedding in the summer of 1996. Although quite taken with contra, it took a couple of months before he went again. After that second dance he was hooked, dancing two or three times a week. In September of that year he went to his first dance weekend and quickly became a true dance gypsy. In 1997 he became coordinator of Spring Dance Romance, Triangle Country Dancers' weekend, and also became a board member of TCD. When building a new house in 2002, it just seemed natural to create a space to host concerts and dances. In addition to contra dancing, for the past 22 years Stephen has been self-employed, running a successful window and door distributorship. |
NC | 2012 |
Mark Weinstein
Mark Weinstein (Huntington, NY) came over from the dark side more than a dozen years ago (with a little shove from his wife Lucy), having started his dance life as a ballroom dance student who never quite mastered Cuban motion. He currently dances mainly English, but still enjoys a good contra swing and rare Scottish jig. Mark is the principal organizer of Weekend Whirligig, assists with Country Dance New York's True Brit weekend and has helped organize several other dance events. To help support his hiking, gardening and dance habits, as well as family (wife, 2 dispersed kids and a cat), he works as a primary care internist, is the managing partner of a large medical group and head of quality assurance and medicine in a hospital, and dabbles in research in medical informatics. |
NY | 2011 |

