![2024 CDSS Governing Board members standing outdoors](https://cdss.org/wp-content/uploads/home/cdss-board-2024-2.png)
We connect and support people in building and sustaining vibrant communities through participatory dance, music, and song. We steward the living traditions of English country dance, contra and square dance, morris and sword dance, and the music that is an integral part of these traditions. Learn more
What’s New
Summer 2022 CDSS News
The Summer 2022 CDSS News is now available! Take a deep dive into the Irish Howle with Graham Christian; remember Lifetime Contribution Award recipient George Fogg; dance via Zoom at a Ball-That-Would-Have-Been; find out how the recorder can shine as a musical star; hear an oral history of old-time and modern Western dance from Bill Alkire; and much more.
June 2022 Song of the Month
Joel Mabus introduces “The Golden Willow Tree,” in which a duplicitous sea captain strikes a bargain with a cabin boy to take down a pirate ship.
May 2022 Song of the Month
George Stephens introduces “Ford o’ Kabul River,” a poem by Rudyard Kipling set to a tune by Peter Bellamy. The song tells the story of a regiment of British Hussars who drowned while attempting to cross the river and occupy Kabul during the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1879.
Country Dance + Song Online Volume 3
With the 2022 issue of Country Dance + Song Online, we are excited to present three articles on very different topics, two of them by contributors new to the journal. We will time-travel to three centuries of Anglo-American dance—all different, but all evolutionarily connected. Read more and download the issue.
April 2022 Song of the Month
Ian Robb introduces “Bold Riley,” a sailor’s farewell that has become a favorite memorial song.
Spring 2022 CDSS News
The Spring 2022 CDSS News is now available! Learn about the Johnny Appleseed of morris dance; try a two-couple ECD or a happy march; read an interview with the late, great Tony Barrand; and much more.
In our history, CDSS has…
bestowed 31 Lifetime Contribution Awards
sold well over 50,000 morris bells
fostered 109 years of tradition
published 114 hours of podcasts
In the past year, CDSS has…
awarded 34 grants for local communities and special projects
published over 600 calendar events
hosted over 1,093 campers
added over 60 repertoire resources for callers
Upcoming Community Events