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  • Job Title: Director of Programs
    Date: November 18, 2024
    Position info: 37.5 hr/week salaried exempt position with benefits
    Location: Flexible; proximity to CDSS home office preferred (located in Easthampton, MA)
    Reports to: Executive Director
    Oversees: Camp Operations Manager, Affiliate Coordinator, Program Directors
    Salary Range: $48,000-$53,000 DOE
    Benefits: Eligible for 403b & paid time off (PTO); MA residents are eligible for health insurance through CDSS
    Closing date: January 17, 2025

    Position Overview:

    The Director of Programs (DoP) will provide program leadership and artistic direction for CDSS dance, music, and song programs. The DoP is responsible for the delivery and overall success of each program: setting programmatic goals in accordance with the strategic objectives of the organization, hiring program and support staff, supervising direct-reports and Program Directors, and reporting on progress and performance. A successful DoP must have a broad knowledge of program management principles. They must have a strategic mindset as well as be able to lead and develop those they manage. It is the DoP’s responsibility to ensure that every program is mission-aligned and delivered effectively.

    Read More

Song of the Month—This month’s song (bloglist latest)

  • An old cemetery in mist January 2025: The Unquiet Grave
    Submitted by Jeff Gillett

    “The Unquiet Grave” is no. 78 in F.J. Child’s The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The set of words I sing is largely Version A in Child, as collected by Charlotte Latham “from a girl in Sussex” and published in 1868. (I see that I have changed them in several places without materially altering the meaning: whether by accident or design, I do not now remember!)

    The tune I use was collected by Cecil Sharp from James Harding, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, March 28th, 1907 and is the 32nd tune for the ballad in Bronson’s The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads.

    In most versions, the dead lover is male and there is a suggestion of violent death as he “lies slain.” This version, however—the earliest recorded by Child—has a female lover who is simply dead and buried. Some of the best-known tunes for the ballad are quite robust and almost exuberant! This tune is, I think, quite plaintive.

    I wanted to create a mysterious, spooky atmosphere. To do this, we added a higher harmony vocal for the times when the ghost speaks. At this point, I also stripped the accompaniment back for most of the ghost’s words to a repeated, chiming discord: a ninth.

    Listen to Discovery singing “The Unquiet Grave:”

    Sheet music for "The Unquiet Grave"
    Download the sheet music for “The Unquiet Grave.”

    Lyrics

    Cold blows the wind over my true love

    And a few small drops of rain.

    I never had but one true love

    And in cold grave she is lain.

    I’ll do as much for my true love

    As any young man may

    I’ll sit and mourn all on her grave

    For a twelvemonth and a day.

    The twelve months and a day being done,

    The dead began to speak:

    “O who sits weeping on my grave

    And will not let me sleep?”

    “’Tis I, ’tis I, your own true love

    Who sit weeping on your grave.

    I want one kiss from your clay-cold lips

    And that is all I crave.”

    “You crave one kiss from my clay-cold lips,

    But my breath is earthy strong.

    If you had one kiss from my clay-cold lips

    Your time would not be long.

    “’Tis down in yonder garden green, love,
    Where you and I did walk:

    The fairest flower that e’er was seen

    Is withered to a stalk.

    “The stalk is withered and dry, my love

    So shall our hearts decay

    Then make yourself content, my love

    Till God calls you away.”

    Jeff Gillett writes: My interest in folk music dates back to my childhood, when my parents introduced me to the music of Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. I later discovered Martin Carthy and began to explore folk music from the UK. I have a great deal of sympathy for those who regard folksong as an essentially unaccompanied form, and have devoted my own efforts as singer and accompanist to finding an approach that supports the song without swamping it.

    I perform solo and with Elaine Gillett as Discovery. I also accompany fiddle player Becky Dellow, with whom I have worked intermittently for nearly forty years. My other longstanding musical relationship was with singer Ron Taylor, with whom I worked for many years and recorded four albums. I have appeared on albums by Jim Causley, Martin and Shan Graebe, Craig Morgan Robson and Marianne McAleer, and was also in a duo with Sarah Morgan.

    I play guitar, mandolin, mandola, English concertina, and Appalachian Mountain dulcimer.

Latest Web Chat (bloglist latest)

  • Dancers taking hands across a line

    Succession Planning for Dance Organizations

    December 5, 2024

    • Does your group want to change from having a single organizer to a committee-run model?
    • Have you noticed burn-out among your volunteers and are wondering what to do about it?
    • Are you wondering how to attract new people to the organizing team of your group?

    In this panel discussion, dance organizers shared their experiences with leadership and volunteer changes in their local groups.

    With special guests:

    • Jenny Beer, Germantown Country Dancers, PA
    • Lisa Faryadi, Charlotte Contra Dancers, NC

    Read More

Songs that Speak—Most recent (bloglist latest)

LCA—Most Recent LCA Recipient (bloglist latest)

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CDSS News—Latest Issue (bloglist latest image-left)

CD+S Online—Latest Issue (bloglist latest image-left)

  • CD+S Online Volume 3 coverCD+S Volume 3, April 2022

    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.

    Articles

    • “The Grand March” by Alan Duffy
    • “Couple Dances, Douglas Kennedy’s English Folk Dance Society, and The British Old Time Dance Revival” by Dr. Chloe Middleton-Metcalfe
    • “A Traditional Square Dance in Upstate South Carolina, 2007-2011” by Bob Dalsemer

    Download PDF View as a Flipbook

CD+S Online—Past Issues (bloglist latest image-left)

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Latest News page (bloglist twocol)

Meet Our Society Members (bloglist twocol)

  • Doug Young & Pat Petersen Doug Young & Pat Petersen

    We met either dancing or playing music—neither of us can remember, as we were both “otherwise engaged”—but those two threads drew us ever closer, and continue to knit our lives together. Our courtship continued after Doug moved a few hours away—he would drive down to the Friday contradance and whisk me onto the floor.

    The strands in those threads multiplied—waltz, contra, English, square; early music and recorder, old-time music with banjos and guitars, and oh so many songs (Pat is sure that when she is on her deathbed Doug will sing for her yet another song that she’s never heard him sing before).

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  • Craig Meltzner & Elaine Walter Craig Meltzner & Elaine Walter

    L’dor v’dor (from generation to generation) is a Jewish phrase which refers to continuity, the responsibility of passing on knowledge and traditions to sustain them for the future. This concept informs our plans to leave a bequest to CDSS.

    We met folk dancing, and our marriage and family life has been enriched by community dance and song, largely from our home base in Northern California. We’ve danced throughout the U.S. and even in Jerusalem, courtesy of an American expatriate dancer. As toddlers, our daughters fell asleep on the sidelines of contra dances, and as they grew, joined us on the dance floor and at summer camps. This summer we look forward to CDSS Family Week at Ogontz with our daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter—the next generation to share the tradition with us.

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  • Bill Warburton Bill Warburton

    Sure, getting dressed up for the annual Playford Ball is fun, but for over 50 years it’s been the variety of moods in the music and patterns in the dances that have kept me engaged. Not to mention the people I’ve danced them with.

    Over those years, what I’ve learned is that it just doesn’t happen all by itself. People who cared kept those dances going, kept that music playing. They learned from someone and they are passing it on – like family love. But dedication and love are not enough. They also need money. So, when I no longer need it, they’re going to get some of mine.

  • Brooke Friendly Brooke Friendly

    The country dance form can be thought of as an exquisite vessel, in itself beautiful in shape, yet highly abstract.
    We can choose to fill this vessel with whatever meaning we like.
    If we like,
    we can pursue a particular friendship;
    we can rejoice in a sense of community;
    we can see in the music and the dance the highest of spiritual values;
    we can see it as good fun.
    The dance is all of these and greater than all of them.

    This lovely quote is from my first dance mentor, Carl Wittman (1943-1986). It has been an inspiration for many years.

    Read More

  • Pam Paulson Pam Paulson

    When I first heard about planned giving it sounded like such a great idea! A way that people who loved our traditions of dance, music and song could give a final gift to help insure that CDSS would continue to thrive.

    At first I couldn’t see how I could participate in the planned giving program. I’m probably not going to need a trust or complicated estate plan as I move into the final decades of my life. What I do have are retirement accounts and those have named beneficiaries. I’ve recently changed those beneficiaries to be CDSS! This was a very easy thing to do and an easy decision to make. This isn’t a set amount that CDSS will receive, I’m planning for it to be many decades before the gift is given and I’m really happy that I could take this step into planned giving.

    Could you join me and take a step today?

  • Judy Grunberg Judy Grunberg
    By Gene Murrow and David Barnert

    Dancers who casually encountered Judy Grunberg on the dance floor—noting her graceful, bird-like movement, animated arms, and frequent smile—would likely have no idea of her powerful role as an entrepreneur and organizer.

    Whenever Judy became aware of a community need, she filled it. When a beloved restaurant near her home in Chatham, NY, closed, she reopened it. When the local art house movie theater was failing, she saved it. She single-handedly created the performing arts venue PS21 because she sensed the need in Columbia County.

    Read More

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Previous Web Chats (bloglist twocol noimage)

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For Affiliates (bloglist threecol)

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Community Grants—Recent Recipients (bloglist threecol largeimage)

  • Circle Up zines

    Circle Up Calling Zine

    Creating a collection of square dances and thoughts toward promoting inclusivity

  • Brattleboro Bal Folk dancers

    Brattleboro Bal Folk

    Guilford, VT
    Hosting a series of bal folk dances with live music

  • Musicians of the Fiddlehead Field Kids Orchestra in Renaissance garb

    Fiddlehead Field Kids Orchestra

    Campton, NH
    Hosting a community Renaissance dance to showcase young musicians and callers

  • Dancers at Housatonic Family Contra Dance

    Housatonic Family Contra Dance

    Housatonic, MA
    Starting a new dance series for all ages

  • Dance caller at John C. Campbell Folk School

    John C. Campbell Folk School

    Brasstown, NC
    Hosting a community dance series using positional calling

  • Musicians from Moab Community Dance Band

    Moab Community Dance Band

    Moab, UT
    Hosting a series of workshops for new callers
    Funded by the Mary Kay Friday Leadership Training Fund

  • Participants creating a triangle-shaped sword lock

    Nobska Lights/S’wap Sword Dance Workshop

    Woods Hole, MA
    Hosting a workshop/figure swap between youth rapper sword teams and adult rapper and longsword teams
    Funded by the May Gadd/Phil Merrill Fund

  • Dance musicians at TADAMS

    Traditional American Dance and Music Society

    Richmond, VA
    Hosting workshops for dance musicians
    Funded by the Chuck Ward Musicians Training Fund

  • Dancers at Squirrel Moon Contra Dance Weekend

    Squirrel Moon Contra Dance Weekend

    Dodgeville, WI
    Continuing a contra dance weekend post-COVID
    Funded by the May Gadd/Phil Merrill Fund

  • Participants singing in a room with a forest view at Raise the Rafters in Oregon

    Raise the Rafters

    Rhododendron, OR
    Creating a youth-oriented traditional singing event in the Pacific Northwest
    Funded by the Mary Kay Friday Leadership Training Fund

  • Musicians playing in a circle at RiverJam Romp

    RiverJam Romp

    Marlboro, VT
    Hosting a weekend of community dances and workshops for musicians

  • Dancers among glowing lights at Yuletide Frolic

    Yuletide Frolick

    Lawrence, KS
    Hosting a festive dance weekend and callers’ workshop

  • Burlington Family Contra Dance

    Burlington Family Contra Dance

    Burlington, VT
    Creating a community family contra dance for all ages and abilities
    Funded by the May Gadd/Phil Merrill Fund

  • The Marley Project

    The Marley Project

    Michigan
    Archiving the full set of historic Marley family dances, from the Vaudeville era
    Funded by the Anthony Barrand Research & Stewardship Fund

  • Workshop participants working together at table

    Make Every Space Safer in Trad Music Communities

    Nasons, VA
    Creating a set of community agreements that people in our music communities can commit to

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Publications—Read (bloglist threecol news)

  • CDSS News, Fall/Winter 2024 CDSS News Magazine

    The CDSS News is a twice-yearly magazine featuring articles, letters, and art about dance and song.

  • CD+S Online Volume 3 cover CD+S Online

    CD+S Online is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published every couple of years and features more in-depth articles than the News.

  • Cover of Playford's The Dancing Master Online Library

    The CDSS Online Library contains free digital copies of previously out-of-print dance books and databases, including Roy Dommett’s Morris Notes, Ken Sheffield’s “From Two Barns” collection, and various indexes from the Colonial Music Institute.

  • Dimond Library reading room at the University of New Hampshire Archive & Collections

    The CDSS Archive & Collections are housed in the Milne Special Collections & Archives at the University of New Hampshire. The CDSS Library is a collection of nearly 3,000 books, 400 periodicals, pamphlets and sheet music, and close to 2000 recordings. The CDSS Archives is a collection of manuscripts, personal papers, microfiche recordings, and archival materials from CDSS history.

  • Map and graphs from community surveys Community Studies

    CDSS Community Studies are recent surveys conducted by us, including CDSS Affiliate Surveys from 2019-2021, the 2018 US Organizer Survey, and the 2017 Canadian Organizer Survey.

Publications—Listen (bloglist threecol news)

  • Contra Pulse Contra Pulse

    Contra Pulse is a podcast taking the pulse of contra dance music today through a series of conversations between host Julie Vallimont and prominent contra musicians from all corners.  Join us in this journey through music, dance, time, space, and community.

  • From the Mic From the Mic

    From the Mic is a podcast about North American social dance calling. Through conversations with callers across the continent host Mary Wesley will explore the world of square, contra, and community dance callers. Why do they do it? How did they learn? What is their role, on stage and off, in shaping our dance communities? What can they tell us about the particular corner of the dance world that they know, and love, the best?

  • Singers at the Youth Traditional Song conference. Photo by Lorelei Erisis. Song of the Month

    The Song of the Month is an ongoing collection of folk songs, curated by members of our community. Each song comes with a story, sheet music, and audio recording for learning.

Publications—Watch (bloglist threecol news)

  • Dance It Yourself! Dance It Yourself

    Dance It Yourself is a multigenerational dance video series, originally produced during the pandemic. The six interactive videos feature well-known traditional dance callers, musicians, and a wide variety of dance styles, all of which can be done solo or in a couple.

  • Saro Lynch-Thomason Songs That Speak

    Songs That Speak is a monthly YouTube series by Saro Lynch-Thomason, supported in part by CDSS. Learn about the history, folklore, and modern-day relevance of traditional songs, and sing along as Saro teaches each song through sing-and-repeat.

  • Darlene Hamilton with guests in a Zoom chat 5 Things: Inside the Dancing Mind of…

    “5 Things: Inside the Dancing Mind of…” is an online video series featuring movers and shakers in the English country dance community. Each guest discusses the five things they feel are most important to their passion for ECD. “5 Things…” is hosted by the Historical Tea & Dance Society and archived by CDSS.

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Online Library—Databases (bloglist threecol news publications)

  • A treasure chest filled with gold Dancing Across the Pond

    Dancing Across the Pond by Robert M. Keller, Margaret Keller Dimock and Anne Keller Geraci: 362 Original Country Dance Figures, 191 with Music, ms or Printed

  • A treasure chest filled with gold Peter Rogers Country Dance Index

    Peter Rogers Country Dance Index, 3rd Edition (1986)

  • The Barnes Book of English Country Dance Tunes Volume Three Database Barnes Three Dance Database

    Barnes Three Dance Database: A database of the tunes and associated dances in Volume Three of the Barnes Book of English Country Dance Tunes, with links to dance instruction and further information about many of the dances.

  • A treasure chest filled with gold The Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers, 1690-1783

    The Colonial Music Institute (compiled by Mary Jane Corry, Kate Van Winkle Keller, and Robert M. Keller): The Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers, 1690-1783 — This publication fills a major gap in access to eighteenth-century American sources for research in the performing arts and related humanities fields. It includes all references to music, poetry (lyrics), dance, and theater found by our readers in American newspapers, from the earliest extant copy (1690) through the end of the Revolutionary War (1783).

  • A treasure chest filled with gold Early American Secular Music and Its 
European Sources, 1589–1839

    The Colonial Music Institute (compiled by Robert M. Keller, Raoul F. Camus, Kate Van Winkle Keller, and Susan Cifaldi): Early American Secular Music and Its 
European Sources, 1589–1839: An Index — This is a series of indexes derived from a data base of musical information compiled from primary sources covering the 250 years of the initial exploration and settlement of the United States. It consists of over 75,000 entries that are sorted by text (titles, first lines, recitatives, chorus and burden), by music incipits (represented in scale degrees, stressed notes and interval sequences), with additional indexes of names and theater works.

  • A treasure chest filled with gold Dance Figures Index: American Country Dances, 1710-1830

    The Colonial Music Institute (compiled by Robert Keller): Dance Figures Index: American Country Dances, 1710-1830 — A guide to the basic figures in all American printed and manuscript longways country dances in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century sources. It is drawn from a computer database of information which was gathered from 82 sources, 53 printed and 29 in manuscript.

  • A treasure chest filled with gold Early American Songsters, 1734-1820

    The Colonial Music Institute (compiled by Robert Keller): Early American Songsters, 1734-1820: An Index —An index of all of the known songsters currently available. The index draws heavily from Irving Lowens’ Bibliography of Songster Printed in America Before 1821 (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1976), for titles and other bibliographical information. Lowens defines a songster “as a collection of three or more secular poems intended to be sung.” Most of the songsters do not include music, although many contain references to the names of tunes to which the song could be sung. This publication comprises those songs published through 1800.

  • A treasure chest filled with gold Dance Figures Index: English Country Dances, 1650-1833

    The Colonial Music Institute (compiled by Robert Keller): Dance Figures Index: English Country Dances, 1650-1833 — A guide to the basic figures in major English printed longways country dances in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century sources. This database only includes sources for dances with instruction for country dances, or dances that could be identified as such. It does not include other dance forms, such as Cotillions or Allemand or similar dances.

  • Cover of The English Dancing Master The Dancing Master, 1651-1728: An Illustrated Compendium

    Robert M. Keller: The Dancing Master, 1651-1728: An Illustrated Compendium (online database)—The Compendium is a searchable database of all known country dances published in the various editions of The Dancing Master, published by John Playford, Henry Playford and John Young, from 1651-1728 in London, with facsimiles of each “unique” dance with its music. This reference work is published by CDSS with the English Folk Dance and Song Society and the New Hampshire Library for Traditional Dance and Music at the University of New Hampshire.

Online Library—Books (bloglist threecol news publications)

  • A blur of contra dancers, with band in the background Mary Dart: Contra Dance Choreography

    Mary Dart: Contra Dance Choreography: A Reflection of Social Change—Originally published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York & London, 1995. Mary Dart’s classic study explores “the way the choreography of the contra dance, a folk dance tradition brought to us from the British Isles, has been changing, particularly over the last twenty years.” The book, based on interviews with callers, dance composers and musicians, looks at new dances, how they are composed, and what aesthetic and cultural principles underlie the choreographic choices made. 

  • Map of West Virginia Robert G. Dalsemer: West Virginia Square Dances

    Robert G. Dalsemer: West Virginia Square Dances—Originally published by Country Dance and Song Society, 1982. Dalsemer describes dance figures as done in five rural West Virginia communities in the mid- to late-1970s and reports on their regular dance events, including programming, type of audience, price and method of admission, and the traditions of figure calling and musical performance. The history of each dance event is discussed, as is their on-going process of evolution. With appendices: a list of tunes commonly played for square dances; transcriptions of calls; and tunes for caller Worley Gardner’s singing and semi-singing calls.

  • A stack of books Ted Sannella: Annotated Discography and Bibliography from Swing the Next

    Ted Sannella: Annotated Discography and Bibliography from Ted Sannella’s Swing the Next — The annotations and introduction for the Discography and Bibliography in Swing the Next (CDSS, 1996) are included here in their entirety. Swing the Next is a collection of 80 American square, contra, triplet and circle dances, the majority of them written by Ted Sannella, a master of the art of calling American traditional dances.

  • Roy Dommett playing the accordion Roy Dommett’s Morris Notes

    Roy Dommett’s Morris Notes Online Edition — the foundational resource, long out of print, available online.

  • Kentucky Mountain Square Dancing cover Patrick Napier: Kentucky Mountain Square Dancing

    Patrick Napier: Kentucky Mountain Square Dancing (17MB PDF)

  • GEMS: The Best of the Country Dance and Song Society's Diamond Anniversary Music, Dance and Song Contest GEMS: The Best of CDSS’s Diamond Anniversary Music, Dance and Song Contest

    CDSS, GEMS: The Best of the Country Dance and Song Society’s Diamond Anniversary Music, Dance and Song Contest

Online Library—Magazines (bloglist threecol news publications)

Online Library—Dances and Other Resources (bloglist threecol news publications)

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Song of the Month—Past Songs (bloglist fourcol)

LCA—Past Recipients (bloglist fourcol)

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Homepage—Latest News (bloglist fourcol news)

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Country Dance & Song Archives (bloglist fourcol newsmag)

The Country Dancer Archives(bloglist fourcol newsmag)

CDSS News—Past Issues (bloglist fourcol newsmag)

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CDSS News older issues (bloglist fourcol smaller)

Song of the Month—Past Songs (bloglist fourcol smaller)

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Songs that Speak—Past Songs (bloglist fourcol noimage)