Ruairidh Greig introduces us to an ancient holiday tradition in the north of England. Teams of performers travel to houses and inns, using a horse’s skull as a puppet while they sing. “Poor Old Horse” is a song from this tradition, collected in Dore, Sheffield in 1970.
Exciting things are on the horizon for CDSS camps! Over the next two years, we’ll incorporate a number of changes and additions to our regular lineup of camp sessions. From shorter, more affordable options (including a new mini-session at Pinewoods) to a beautiful new-to-CDSS location in the Pacific Northwest, there’ll be more to experience and explore! Learn more here.
Starting in 2027, CDSS will take over the long-standing Lady of the Lake June Music and Dance Week in Harrison, ID. The Lady of the Lake board invited us to assume responsibility for June Week to ensure that the beautiful and successful camp they created continues far into the future.
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Lee Murdock introduces “We’re Going to Pump Out Lake Erie,” sourced from Captain Pearl Nye of Akron, Ohio. This tongue-in-cheek song encapsulates the endless toil of canal work.
Thanks to your generous giving to our recent appeals and to demonstrated value and need in our community, the CDSS Board recently approved a $10,000 increase in available grant funding for this year.
See our Community Grants page for more information and how to apply.
We are helping to connect donors with dance and music community members who have been directly affected by natural disasters. If you are one of those affected, please fill out this form to be included in the list.
Cate Clifford introduces “The Old Songs,” a poem by Bob Copper set to music by Peter Bellamy. Cate includes both Peter’s recording and her own version of the lyrics, slightly altered to include singers of all genders.
This second episode of the Flying Shoes Radio Hour features Wild Asparagus, an influential dance band based in Western Massachusetts, and named for a feral crop in the Connecticut River Valley. Listen and subscribe!
We’re excited to welcome the newest members of our governing board. Many thanks to the outgoing board members for their years of service! Learn more about the board and our bylaws.
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.
Isaac BannerIsaac Banner (Seattle, WA) has been dancing and calling in the Pacific Northwest for more than a decade. Originally from Saratoga Springs, NY, they grew up surrounded by the music and dance communities of the Greater Adirondacks, regularly volunteering at Caffè Lena and The Dance Flurry.
Seeking community through the folk and American barbershop traditions, Isaac danced his way across the country in 2015 and, since relocating to the west coast, they’ve been passionately involved in creating safe and inclusive dance spaces for dancers of every identity and background. They believe strongly that open, affordable, and accessible dance spaces are fundamental to carrying forward the folk tradition to the next generation of dancers, callers, musicians, and more.
Isaac’s professional background is primarily in online services and digital security, through which they’ve served in a technical capacity to support and organize several events in the Pacific Northwest. When they’re not calling for dances, they can be found writing original choreography, coaching new callers, or making surprisingly convincing chicken noises.
Seth TepferSeth Tepfer (Decatur, GA) first started Scottish country dancing in 1987. Ballroom dancing led to Cajun dancing, which led to contra dancing. From there, Seth started helping run dance events and, in 1997, started contra dance calling.
In the years since, Seth has organized dance weekends (What the Hey, Butterfly Whirl, Atlanta Dance Weekend) and dance weeks (Florida Rhapsody (1997-2001), Bonaire Dance and Dive (2005), Terpsichore’s Dance Holiday (2015-2019), and Rhapsody Adventure in Paxos, Greece (2025). Seth has called dance weekends and dance events across the United States and in Bonaire, Canada, England, Denmark, France, Germany, and Greece.
Seth is passionate about teaching dance leadership. He has taught contra, square, English, and community calling intensives. His website is a valued resource for essays, choreography collections, and thoughts about dance calling.
Seth loves sharing the joy of dance for people who have never danced before, for experienced contra, English, or square dancers. He is excited to work with other leaders to promote dance, music, and song.
Christa TorrensChrista Torrens (Bigfork, MT) was volunteering at a Western Massachusetts folk music weekend in 2001 when she wandered onto the contra dance floor—and has been an avid contra and English dancer ever since. It took a few years, but she was eventually willing to give up a little dance time for mic time: Christa started calling contras in 2011 and English in 2021 (online!). She is particularly drawn to the welcoming, community-centered aspect of contra and ECD, and loves that, as a caller as well as a dancer, she can share some of her own dance joy with others.
While Christa has lived—and danced!—in most regions of the US, she has spent the bulk of the last 20 years based in the Mountain West and is grateful to call both the Missoula, MT, and Front Range, CO, dance communities home.
When she’s not dancing, Christa works as an aquatic ecosystem ecologist and ecosystem modeler, occasionally sloshing around in streams, but more often sitting in front of a screen fiddling with code and confronting models with data. She loves being outdoors and spends much of her time hiking, biking, skiing, and simply enjoying wild spaces.
Ellie ShogrenEllie Shogren caught the dance bug early in life, attending her first contra dance at two months old. Decades later, she is still an avid dancer and has served numerous folk communities across the country as staff, crew, board member, and enthusiastic participant.
Originally hailing from Tennessee, Ellie has been fortunate enough to develop folk connections all over the country and overseas, having lived in the South, New England, and the United Kingdom. Ellie and her husband, Ethan, now call the Nebraska/Iowa region home after meeting at a contra dance.
Ellie is honored to serve the CDSS community as a board member in memory of her mom, Chrissy Davis-Camp, who was an influential caller from Tennessee. Both Ellie and her younger sister, Anna Claire, have followed in their mom’s steps; if they are not on the dance floor, you can find them behind the mic calling contra, English, or teaching youth morris and rapper sword.
Because of her parents, Chrissy and Pat, Ellie was taught the importance of community and instilled with a responsibility for inclusion and respect for all through the lense of folk arts. Ellie still carries these important lessons with her as she shares her passion for all things folk.
Sharon GreenBack in 1984-1985, David and Sharon Green had an annus terribilis, a terrible year. In 14 months, they lost all four of their parents. Then in 1988, Sharon found country dancing and refound joy.
Since then, Sharon has danced and called in England, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, and throughout the United States. She has organized dance weekends and weeks on both coasts and has served on the boards of both the Bay Area Country Dance Society and Country Dance New York. While living in New York, she edited the introductions to three books of dances by her mentor, Fried de Metz Herman. Emulating Fried, Sharon has also choreographed some 40 dances herself.
In 2024, Sharon had the great honor of being chosen to receive CDSS’s Lifetime Contribution Award for her and her household’s work promoting English country dancing. Sharon maintains that it has been her great joy to be part of CDSS, and now in her 80s she is both happy and honored to serve on the board.
Dilip SequeiraDilip Sequeira (Seattle, WA) hails from London and contracted a severe case of the folk dance virus (Scottish variant) while a student in Edinburgh. On escaping Britain for St. Louis in 2003, he discovered the joys of English country dance, and it was only a few short years ago that he found his inner contra dancer, too. He has been calling ECD on the West Coast since 2017 and enjoys working with all levels of dancers, helping them improve their skills and get more out of their dancing.
He is now a recovering software engineer, on a mission to make the English country dance repertoire available to the world.