Country Dance and Song Society

And so we are! We are extremely excited and honored to be working on the 2007 planning with the veteran and professional staff who are each returning because they are committed to the rich opportunities of the week. The staff is ready to be fully present to build a time of fun and learning with you.

We welcome all people to Storytelling Week. Families are invited. Adults may come singly. Participants under 18 years of age must have a supervising adult accompany them. The inter-generational community offers room for all.

You will help us style and complete the final design for this CDSS venture. We have a schedule to accommodate various age levels and interests; and, upon receiving registrations, we will fine tune the class offerings with regards to participants' age groupings and needs. People age 13 and up will be in groups among which the storytellers will rotate through the week.

Combining workshops, classes and performances with the amazing and beautiful setting of Camp Ogontz ignites beauty and creativity. We plan some serendipitous and engaging "One-of-a-kind One Shot Surprises" to spice each day with festivity and artful opportunity.

Creating together in stories, songs, dances, harmonies, bands, parties, crafts, plays and tomfoolery, ritual traditions, large group projects and small group adventures, parades, times of quiet and reflection, glorious mealtimes -- how could the week promise more! Ogontz, our hosts -- the Kent family and extended family working there, the New Hampshire mountains and lakes and air and CDSS Storytelling Week staff invite you to come and be nurtured together. -- Merle Davis, Program Director

Staff: [Back to Top]

Karen Axelrod is funny, caring, tricky... but watch out when she plays her music! She's beyond the keyboard in her excellence and skill!

Debbie Block is an artist with fibers and fabrics and paper. Her quilts are full of her self and her craft projects offer us cause to think and be thoughtful. Debbie is Bill Harley's wife.

Judy Cabral works with stories and age-appropriate surprises to help children discover the world around them.

Len Cabral brings the flavor and spice of his family heritage from the Canary Islands to bear on his music and stories. Len and Bill have often collaborated in storytelling.

Willy Claflin and Maynard the Moose tell us about adventures, fairytales and decades of music and coming of age. An educator, a folk musician, a word master (and twister!) and a funny, kind man, Willy creates twice the fun when Maynard joins him!

jubal Creech

Andy Davis is New England's treasure. He is the music teacher we wish every child could know. Andy teaches dances and harmony singing and will bring us some opportunities to learn and enjoy these at camp.

Donald Davis' stories are like the ties that bind... and this year we'll discover that his cooking skills are pretty good also! From North Carolina, Donald brings a stable and grounded storytelling history to this second Storytelling Week.

Merle Davis loves to make the connections that help people have fun, have good experiences together and hear each other's stories.

Daron Douglas, again living in New Orleans, is a fine fiddler for American and English dance traditions. Daron also brings a rich repertoire of songs from her great-grandmother, who was one of Cecil Sharp's informants in the southern mountains.

Bill Harley is something of a grown-up kid but we call him a remarkably mature storyteller whose wisdom gives him the power to transcend the ages. Bill is for us all, and he makes us better when we're with him.

George and Lynn Kent are the spirit of Camp Ogontz. They bring four generations of their family to camp -- and every one of them works to make the summer weeks wonderful. George conducts the prestigious Westerly Chorus and Lynn is queen of thrift shop treasure hunts!

Laura Pershin's sparkling smiles welcome the children and the adults who visit her at her children's library in Ann Arbor, MI. Laura's fine stories for children are fetching... but her stories of her colorful Jewish family are her shiniest jewels!

Kenny Raynor is Laura's artistic husband and her partner in playful joy! He has an eye for design and composition and photographic opportunities. Kenny is a creative parent whose pride and joy are their two college-age daughters.

Susan Reed is a songwriter, creative storyteller and leader in the Suzuki world of violin. Susan is an experienced family Suzuki Camp Director and has been a key planner on the design team.

Storytelling Week at Ogontz Daily Schedule
7:45 - 8:30	Breakfast
9:00 - 10:15	Morning classes, divided by age group
10:15	Refreshments
10:30 - 11:15	Morning Gathering
11:15 - 12:15	Swimming, Bookstore staffed One Shot Surprises
12:15	Lunch
12:45 - 1:15	Bookstore staffed
1:30 - 2:15	Quiet activities / Rest time
2:30 - 3:30	Afternoon classes
3:35	Refreshments
3:45 - 4:45	Late afternoon classes and One Shot Surprises
4:55 - 5:30	At the Green Chairs
5:50	Dinner
7:15	Community Dance and Evening Gathering
8:15	Pied Piper / Bedtime for children 9 and younger
8:15 - 8:30	After-Glow
8:30 - 10:00	Evening Dance Party
9:30	Bedtime for 10-12 year olds
10:00	Optional after-dance activities

Class Descriptions: [Back to Top]

9:00 - 10:15
Workshops for everyone! Every day there are classes / workshops for children in their appropriate age groups and for teens and adults who will work each morning with a different teller.

Children's age groupings will be set after registration is complete. Every day may have a mixture of dancing, stories, song, art projects, theatrical creations, traditional ritual dancing and lore and surprising new fun. Professional staff working with children include Andy Davis, Karen Axelrod, Merle Davis, Debbie Block, Susan Reed and Judy Cabral.

Adult workshops will spring from the talents of the tellers as well as the input of the campers. The week will progress topically and will grow as we grow together in the community experiences. Like a restaurant with experienced chefs, the staff comes with well-developed "menu" plans which will be served forth according to interests, needs, levels of experience and responses to the times and settings. Traditional stories, family stories and newly-made stories will be on the menu.

1:30- - 2:15 Quiet Activities

2:30 - 3:30
This is the time when staff and camper input will determine a range of activities to be offered one time, two times, possibly more! How will we know what's happening when?

A daily schedule (too inclusive to be put here) will be given at camp. Each individual day will be slightly different from the others. Younger camper groups will have the continuity of a staff class leader to carry them through the daily meeting times in which they will have some amazing opportunities and class projects.

The afternoon classes include the following:

3:45 - 4:45
Open Spaces, One-of-a-kind One Shot Surprises

Might include:

10:00 Optional After-Dance Activities
Camp life is busy and we'll need our rest, but in the after-dance evenings you might enjoy some late-night singing, games, jam sessions, pub songs or extensions of the days' memory parties. Some activities are planned. Some are not. Some nights are just good to sleep!

Schedules for the first day of camp and Friday, the last full day of camp
These will be different. The final Friday will include our parade and celebration of our week together. That schedule will be posted at camp.

The schedule for our arrival day, Saturday, July 21, 2007, is as follows:

4:00	Earliest arrival time
4:30-5:30	Welcoming Party by the Green Chairs
5:30	Camp Orientation
5:50	Dinner
7:15	Introductory meeting in Junior Playhouse
8:15	Bedtime for 9 and under
8:30 - 10:00	Dance for 10 and older
9:30	Bedtime for 10-12's
10:00	Opening Night Party

Making Memories
A party a day! Can you take it? We'll work with a nugget of a theme, a kernel of an idea, a little snippet of some things we may all have shared in one way or another. Throughout each day we'll bump into the day's theme at gatherings and mealtimes, at special events and maybe even after the dance to see if we don't find and nourish our own memories as we make new ones at camp.

Tentatively we're looking at the following ideas for our daily themes: