CDSS Governing Board
Seeking New Nominations
CDSS is Looking for Stars!
Are you seeing stars? CDSS is always on the look out for star volunteers. Are you one? Do you know someone who is a star?
The CDSS Governing Board is a group of hardworking volunteers who look at the big picture, the vision and direction of where the organization is heading and what we and CDSS should be doing. Board members come from all over the United States and Canada and represent our constituency in dance, music and song.
The CDSS Board will have a number of board members completing their terms next year and are seeking nominations for those positions before the end of June. As well, we’re often looking for people to participate in task groups and board committees as community member representatives. And as planning for our Centennial celebrations shifts into high gear, we’re anticipating all kinds of opportunities and will need volunteers.
The Nominating Committee submits a slate of qualified individuals for board “at large” positions each year. We’re also keeping a list of stars willing to serve on task groups and committees. We’re asking for your suggestions. Board members must be members of CDSS but community members serving on task groups and committees need not be.
Think about yourself and the people you know in your local community. We’re looking for people who have the appropriate mix of skills, experience, time, energy, teamwork style and have a passion for the country dance, music and song that we all love! Professional experience in any of the following categories would be particularly helpful: management, finance and/or banking, human resources, law, fundraising, publicity and small non-profit organizations. We want to hear about active, organized, thoughtful, responsible, creative, innovators in your community who have come up with an idea and worked with others to make it happen. We’re particularly interested in increasing the number of younger volunteers.
If you, or someone you know is a star, please let us know! Send us a short summary of the following:
- Why you think they are a good board, task group or committee candidate
- What work/activities and skills/qualities they have that are useful and relevant
- What do they do in dance, music and song
- How we can contact them (email, phone, mail)
Most of our committee work happens during the summer and early fall so please send your suggestions by June 30, to the CDSS Nominating Committee via email to wturnip@sympatico.ca or by mail to 301-140 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5V 3N8.
Bev Bernbaum, Chair, CDSS Nominating Committee
Current Board Members
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.
Officers
| Name | State | Term Ends | |
|---|---|---|---|
David Millstone
David Millstone (Lebanon, NH) spent junior and senior high school admiring others who knew how to move on the dance floor, venturing out only for the occasional "slow dance." Shortly after he moved to New Hampshire in 1972, friends dragged him to a Dudley Laufman dance one snowy night and his life changed. Playing guitar and hammered dulcimer in an all-purpose folkie band, he was asked to call for dancing at parties, starting his 35+ years as a dance caller. He resisted English country dancing for years—"What? No partner swing?"—but that changed in 1987 when he went to Pinewoods for English and American Week. In the company of supportive dancers there, he came to appreciate the joy of ECD, which he has been leading for the past twenty years. He calls at festivals and camps across North America and has led dances in Europe (seven countries so far) with many visits to Denmark and the Czech Republic. He also enjoys family dances, weddings, and similar events. He has produced four video documentaries about the contra dance world and is currently coordinating a major effort to tell the story of American square dance through moving images in an online digital library. Away from the dance floor, he was an elementary school teacher for thirty years, during which he published an intensive study of his experiences teaching Homer's Odyssey to his fifth graders. Discouraged by micro-managing school boards and administrators, he was delighted to join the CDSS Board (2002–2008) with its focus on the big picture. He is excited about working with the Board again as we approach the CDSS centennial in 2015. |
NH | 2015 | 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 appreciates CDSS’ focus on supporting 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 | 2014 | Secretary |
Linda Maguire
Linda Maguire (Longmont, CO) had no idea, when she was introduced to Folk Music and Contra Dancing in 1998, that any of this had existed. She was immediately taken by the sense of community that she has found nowhere else in this busy world. She has enjoyed friendships, all over the world, being a part of this community. She thinks it is too easy in our busy electronic world today to miss those opportunities, and makes an effort to support local events and folk venues, and to introduce as many people as are willing, to this tradition. She joined the Finance Committee in 2010 to become more involved in CDSS and to find ways to help make CDSS successful. (In her day job, she has worked as financial controller for hi-tech companies.) In 2011, with changes happening within CDSS, she was asked to participate in a larger capacity, as Treasurer. She has enjoyed taking on this responsibility and looks forward to continuing in this role. |
CO | 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 week-long one), and two years later she called her first whole evening of contra dancing. Currently she calls contras and squares on both coasts at regular dances, festivals, and camps. She's been on the board of directors for BACDS (Bay Area Country Dance Society) and CDSS, and has programmed both regular dance series and dance weekends. 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 biostatisician doing medical research. |
CA | 2015 |
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 |
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. Bev joined the CDSS Board in 2010, and began serving on the Nominating Committee, which she now chairs. She co-organizes the “News from Canada” column in the CDSS News, determined to increase awareness of Canadian events and groups involved in continuing the traditions. 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 country dancing in 1989 in New York City, and later also danced on “New World Sword” and “Chelsea Country Dancers,” Christine Helwig’s performance group. Nancy served as secretary to the CD*NY board for two terms, chaired and volunteered at various events, and served on numerous committees. English dance is her favorite, but she likes the opportunities that camps and special events provide for trying other dance and song forms, and improving skills. She and husband Art Munisteri both enthusiastically serve on local dance committees and regularly attend English dances and informal sings. Apart from a passion for country dance, Nancy brings to the board a career of experience in government and business. When she retired in 2008, she was the Deputy Director of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s New York District Office where she oversaw operations, programs and staff in four offices. She also conducted training designed to encourage employers to voluntarily comply with anti-discrimination laws. Nancy joined the CDSS Board in 2010 and is currently serving on the personnel committee. Her priorities for CDSS include:
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MA | 2013 |
Gaye Fifer
Gaye Fifer (Pittsburgh, PA) has been an active contra dancer for the past 30 years, first in St. Louis, MO, then living in Charlottesville, VA, now retired in Pittsburgh. She was an organizer for her local dances in Charlottesville, serving on the board and co-chairing their fall festival committee numerous times. She is involved with both the contra and English dance communities in Pittsburgh. 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 8 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. Gaye and her partner, Wayne Albright, have also been leading waltz workshops at contra dance weekends for the past 10 years. When not dancing/waltzing/calling, you can find Gaye volunteering in a public school, singing in a women's choir and working to change the world. |
PA | 2014 |
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. |
IL | 2014 |
Lorraine Lee Hammond
Lorraine Lee Hammond (Brookline, MA) organized her first folk festival in 1962. A lifetime New Englander, Lorraine was raised in the rural musical traditions of the Connecticut Berkshires. She is a tradition bearer, performer, and scholar. With a recent master’s degree for studies in folklore, ethnomusicology, and the politics of culture from Goddard College, she is now an adjunct professor in the Humanities Department at Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts, where she teaches American Folk Music and World Music. Lorraine is the founder and president of Great Acoustics, Inc., a non-profit corporation mandated to support the teaching and performance of traditional American music, and a founder and artistic director of Summer Acoustic Music Week, sponsored by WUMB-FM at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The history of CDSS has great personal meaning for Lorraine, who first taught at Pinewoods Folk Music Week in the summer of 1974. Each afternoon she learned English Country dancing under the brisk tutelage of May Gadd who, with her white gloves and snare drum, was a vital link in the strong CDSS chain. Lorraine will focus on developing programs that continue to emphasize the Anglo American song and balladry link in that chain, with attention to engaging the interest of college students and classroom teachers across the United States. Lorraine and her husband Bennett Hammond perform extensively, and record on their Brookline label, “Snowy Egret Music.” See www.greatacoustics.org for more details. |
MA | 2015 |
Rob Harper
Rob Harper (Atlanta, GA) finds himself at home wherever there are fun folks – especially dancers and musicians – around. His musical experience is pretty much limited to playing the trombone for 3 days in the 5th grade. Contra dancing came much later in life, but fortunately took hold with passion and intensity. After his 1996 introduction to contra, he was joyfully dancing his way from dance to dance until one fateful day. Wandering into a festival’s Sunday morning family dance, he watched a nationally known caller leading more than 100 folks of all ages in an amazing show of intergenerational joy. He knew immediately, “I want to do that.” While having fun calling dances all around, his favorite dances are those where he’s introducing new dancers to contra dance. It's an honor to have first time dancers come up during/after the event exhausted and smiling and ask where/when they can dance like this again. Beyond his on-stage and dance floor time, he has jumped into many roles with the Chattahoochee Country Dancers as president, treasurer, festival chair, sound tech, flyer folder, chair mover, floor sweeper and wherever else he can help. His latest dance endeavor is a new one-of-a-kind contra dance festival to showcase emerging talent from around the country (www.catapultshowcase.com). To earn enough money to support his calling/dancing habit, Rob is a management consultant. |
GA | 2015 |
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 | 2014 |
Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg
Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg (Atlanta, GA) does not dance. Really! He has, however, been singing Sacred Harp music and participating in related shape note singing traditions since 2000. Jesse was initially attracted to Sacred Harp singing while studying with Neely Bruce as an undergraduate at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, and has since grown to love the tradition for its sense of community, powerful music, deep spirituality, and delicious food. Jesse is active as a singing school master, composer, organizer, and singer (tenor and bass) in the Sacred Harp singing community. He travels regularly to Sacred Harp singings around the United States, attending upwards of thirty annual singings and singing conventions each year. In recent years he has served as Chairman of the Georgia, New York State, and Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Singing Conventions and on Arranging, Resolutions, and Locating Committees at numerous singings. Jesse was the President of the Board of Directors of the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Community, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Sacred Harp singing in Western Massachusetts from 2007-2010, and currently serves as Vice President of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, the organization that prints the Sacred Harp. Jesse’s roots are in the Northeast: he grew up outside of Boston and more recently spent six years living in Troy, NY in Upper Hudson Valley. He recently relocated to Atlanta, GA where he is beginning a PhD program in the interdisciplinary liberal arts at Emory University. Jesse is particularly interested in helping to teach and encourage the next generation of Sacred Harp singers. He has been involved in teaching Sacred Harp singing on college campuses, and serves on the staff of Camp Fasola, a summer camp in Alabama for learning and singing Sacred Harp. He is excited to help think about how CDSS can serve participants in traditional singing communities. |
GA | 2014 |
Carol Marsh
Carol Marsh (Washington, DC) 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. |
DC | 2013 |
John Mayberry
John Mayberry (Toronto, ON) grew up in a family full of music and dance. The story is that he was first taken to a dance in a basket at two weeks old, and early home movies show him at 6 in full Swedish costume at a Swedish dance festival in Tokyo. Early exposure to the Weavers, etc. led to a life-long love of traditional song, which combined with a teen-aged infatuation with mime and juggling resulting in several years working with the Poculi Ludique Societas, a scholarly medieval theatre group. This experience also developed three other life-long vocations: carpentry, leading to building scenery and props for theatres and then to teaching undergraduates in university theatre programs; Morris dancing, leading to his dancing with The Toronto Morris Men as the Fool, and mummers’ plays, leading to writing, performing and studying them. He is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and also Academic Advisor of Winters College, at York University in Toronto. He and his wife Laurie Cumming have been on staff at CDSS Family Week, Campers’ Week, English Week, and Ogontz Family Week where they have also been Program Directors. They have been on staff at Boston Centre July Fourth Weekend and English and Scottish Session at Pinewoods, as well as Berea Christmas Dance School and Algoma Traditional Music and Dance Family Camp. John has served on the Board of Directors of The Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology and also that of Theatre Ontario, a not-for-profit association supporting all aspects of theatrical activity in the province. He is Vice-Chair (and former Chair) of the Technology Commission of OISTAT (Organisation Internationale des Scénographes, Techniciens et Architectes de Théâtre). He currently dances Irish sets, contra and English as often as possible. A 2005 trip with the Toronto Morris Men, invited to dance in the carnival parade in Santiago de Cuba, sparked his current passion, Afro-Cuban dance, especially the dances of Ellegua the trickster. |
ON | 2014 |
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 Emerita of the Mountain Collegium early and traditional music workshop. |
NC | 2014 |
Nathaniel Puffer
Nathaniel Puffer (Taos, NM) attended a handful of contra & square dances in the areas of Greenfield and Cambridge, MA while living in Boston, but he really didn't discover the world of traditional dance until moving to New Mexico. Nate moved West in 2008 to seek his fortune in Las Vegas, NM (not NV), and took over as managing attorney of the small legal aid office there. Since there were but a handful of musicians in that town, he was compelled to begin performing the country gospel regularly at the old Harvey House hotel bar there (and can therefore truly say he had a "regular gig in Vegas"). When Nate transferred to the legal aid office in Taos, NM, he went to check out the monthly local contra dance and ended up promptly joining the band. Since then he's started attending larger dance events here and there, mostly around NM and CO, but also once in Berea, KY. In Taos they got the bright idea to start calling the dances themselves instead of going into debt paying callers to travel to their tiny little dance, and now that's what they're doing! Also, since about 2001 Nate has been fairly big on old-time music and has tried to travel to at least one big old-time or bluegrass festival or event each summer. |
NM | 2016 |
Natty Smith
Natty Smith (Somerville, MA) grew up in a family steeped in music and dance traditions. Raised by parents who met contra dancing thirty years ago and grandparents who were Classical and Baroque music enthusiasts and performers, he grew up skilled in and appreciative of both the classical and folk arts. After years of watching his mother dance Northwest Morris, he began Morris dancing himself on Tom Kruskal's children's team Hop Brook in Sudbury, MA. With Hop Brook, then Candyrapper and Great Meadows Morris and Sword, and now the Pinewoods Morris Men, Maple Morris, and Thames Valley International, Natty can be found dancing or playing fiddle for Morris and sword all over New England and southeastern Canada every spring and summer. Natty attended Pinewoods and Ogontz Camp family dance sessions starting at a very young age, in later years working or volunteering on the camps' kitchen and grounds crew. This, inevitably, led to working on staff at a Family Week at Ogontz in 2008. His family has attended and supported The Christmas Revels productions in Cambridge, MA, since it began in the 1970s. Natty began performing with The Christmas Revels in 2000, continuing to dance, sing, or play fiddle in many of their productions. In 2008, Natty helped start and has since co-directed the Revels Children's Summer Workshops. A love for history and music goes hand in hand with his family's passion for sailing off the coast of Maine. |
MA | 2016 |
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 has been 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 | 2015 |
Stephen Stiebel
Stephen Stiebel (Mebane, NC) was introduced to contra dancing at a friend's wedding in 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, Stephen has been self-employed, running a successful window and door distributorship, since 1986. |
NC | 2015 |