
We connect and support people in building and sustaining vibrant communities through participatory dance, music, and song traditions that have roots in English and North American culture. Learn more
What’s New
August 2022 Song of the Month
Bob Bovee introduces “Yuba Dam,” an old-time song with a humorous tale of verbal misunderstandings.
July 2022 Song of the Month
Kim Wallach introduces “Bibble A La Do.” Also known as “Buttermilk Hill” and “Shule Aroon,” “Shule a Ghra,” “Siúil a Rún,” and by many other names, the song laments a lad gone for a soldier—sometimes one for whom the singer has sold everything to supply with the tools of war, only for them to die anyway.
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.
In our history, CDSS has…
fostered 108 years of tradition
sold well over 50,000 morris bells
bestowed 30 Lifetime Contribution Awards
published 87 hours of podcasts
In the past year, CDSS has…
published over 550 calendar events
awarded 11 grants for local communities and special projects
added over 60 repertoire resources for callers
hosted over 1,093 campers
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