Country Dance & Song Society > About CDSS

Category: About

We are pleased to present our new five-year strategic plan, developed by the board and staff and with community input over the past two years. Click here for more about the development of the new plan.

Mission

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.

Vision

Individuals nourished and communities strengthened by dancing, singing, and making music together.

Values

  • We commit to Stewardship, sustaining and cultivating these living traditions and the financial and cultural resources that have been entrusted to us.

  • We embrace Creativity and Innovation, both in the living traditions we steward, and in the ways that we approach our own work and support communities.

  • We believe that Participation is at the heart of the living traditions in our mission, and therefore we have a responsibility to ensure that everyone who wishes to do so has the tools and access they need to join in.

Strategic Goals

  • Help affiliates adapt in a changing world

    Many of our affiliate communities are facing challenges related to pandemic recovery and generational leadership shifts. CDSS will provide support and leadership to set communities up for long term success by bringing people together, providing resources and learning opportunities, and facilitating the transfer of knowledge.

  • Re-evaluate and update the CDSS membership model

    More people participate in the traditions in our mission than are reflected in our current base of support. CDSS aims to develop an updated membership model that values current contributors and participants, and attracts new supporters, while better connecting with the broader communities we serve.

  • Achieve financial sustainability

    CDSS will expand and diversify our funding streams in order to balance the budget, launch strategic initiatives, and sustain our mission into the future.

  • Embed cultural equity in CDSS programs and operations

    In the context of CDSS, cultural equity encompasses the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people have access to the dance, music, and song traditions defined in our mission. We will embed cultural equity in our work, with a focus on increasing access to CDSS resources, removing barriers to program participation, and researching and sharing the complete histories of the traditions we steward.

From the Mic with Ben Sachs-Hamilton

In this episode of From the Mic, Mary is joined by contra dance caller and community organizer Ben Sachs-Hamilton. Ben started contra dancing at 12 and started teaching dances at 15. Since then, he has called and organized for dances across the northeast, with a focus on LGBTQ and gender-role-free dance communities. 

British and German WWI soldiers socializing around a small Christmas tree

Marc Bernier introduces “Christmas in the Trenches” by John McCutcheon. The song tells the tale of the 1914 Christmas Truce between the British and German lines in the First World War from the perspective of a fictional British soldier.

From the Mic with David Smukler

In this episode of From the Mic, we hear from the most wonderful David Smukler. A dance caller, scholar, organizer, choreographer, teacher, champion of chestnuts…the list goes on. David joined Mary over zoom from his home in Syracuse, New York. He grew up singing folk songs with his mom and began dancing contras in New Hampshire as a teen. In 1981 he was drafted to call for his local dance and has been calling ever since. David calls contras and squares, English country dances, and family and community dances.

Sharon Green, 2024 LCA recipient

We are delighted to announce that Sharon Green of Oakland, CA, is the 2024 recipient of the CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award. Sharon is an English country dancer, caller, teacher, choreographer, and tireless promoter of the talents of others.

Sharon Green, 2024 LCA recipient

We are delighted to announce that Sharon Green of Oakland, CA, is the 2024 recipient of the CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award. Sharon is an English country dancer, caller, teacher, choreographer, and tireless promoter of the talents of others.

She has been an integral and joyful part of the New York and San Francisco Bay Area dance communities in which she has lived (and danced). Most recently, she and Kalia Kliban founded the Odd Sundays Zoom dance, connecting dancers from everywhere and keeping the spirit of the dance alive during pandemic isolation.

Read more about Sharon in the December 2023 issue of the CDSS News!

Award Celebration

Sharon was honored with an award celebration in April 2024.

Watch a video of the celebration.

Read the Zoom chat messages from Sharon’s celebration.

The Green Light, an English dance written in celebration of Sharon’s LCA by Renée Camus, with tune by Jon Berger:
Dance instructions
Dance demo video

At CDSS, our online and in-person program staff use a variety of calling terms, including gendered and non-gendered role terms, as well as positional language. We will be transparent about the terminology used in our programming to help participants find what they are looking for.

Non-gendered approaches to teaching and calling—including positional calling and non-gendered role terms—are established branches of the living traditions we love. Our programming that explores these branches is part of our mission to steward living traditions, and is in line with our core values of stewardship, creativity, innovation, and participation.

We hope our programs and resources will:

  • provide options to dancers for whom gendered or non-gendered language is a barrier to participation
  • create space and resources for individuals and organizations to explore calling options beyond gendered role terms
  • increase the number of non-gendered calling resources available in the wider world

CDSS Affiliates make their own decisions about terminology at their events. An affiliate’s choice of terminology for teaching and calling has no impact on the support and resources we provide to them. We are committed to serving all our affiliates because thriving local dance communities are essential to the living traditions we steward.