“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.
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.
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.
Can Songs Kill? The Leo Frank Trial and the Ballad of Little Mary Phagan
The Meaning of the Cherry Tree Carol Folksong: Old Christmas, Sacred Trees and Fertility Goddesses
Easy Folk Songs to Sing: The Cherry Tree Carol
Can I Sing That? Catawba Indian Nation Songs, Context and Colonization:
Learn to Sing Two Catawba Language Songs:
Learn to Sing “I Am Going to the West:”
CDSS is pleased to support “Songs that Speak,” a monthly YouTube series by Saro Lynch-Thomason. Learn about the history, folklore, and modern-day relevance of traditional songs, and sing along as Saro teaches each song through sing-and-repeat.
“5 Things…Inside the Dancing Mind of…” is a one-hour chat with Q&A from movers and shakers in the English country dance community from across the country about the 5 things that they feel are important to our passion for ECD and why. Hosted by the Historical Tea & Dance Society.
Dr. John RamsayDecember 19, 2022Leader, organizer, researcher, dancerVideo
Dance It Yourself, the CDSS multigenerational dance video series, is our response to dancing at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Are you a teacher or a homeschool parent, looking for resources to share with your students? Would you like them to be able to dance and sing at home, under your supervision? Would you like someone else to do all the teaching and explaining of the dances for you? You’ve come to the right place!
We hope that this seven-video series will help you and your students to share the love of traditional dance and music, even through the Zoom screen!
The Dance It Yourself series features well-known traditional dance callers, musicians, and a wide variety of dance styles, all of which can be done solo or in a couple.
Dances are demonstrated for you and your students dancing both singly and in pairs. All dances are done in small spaces, showing you how it can be done in your own homes.
“The CDSS Dance It Yourself video series is fabulous! I’ll be using it to teach on-line Kodály training courses this summer. The classroom applications for post-COVID are immeasurable. Please keep making more!”
–Georgia A. Newlin, DMA
“During this difficult time of COVID, it is so inspiring to see CDSS continuing their mission. So happy to be a member of CDSS and seeing a collaborative effort of musicians, callers, and dancers working together to offer these amazing opportunities. The joy I felt from watching the father and son dancing together warmed my heart. With the ongoing work of CDSS, I remain hopeful that dancing will happen soon.”
–Amy Krafchick
“Thank you for your work on this! The absence of folk dance in my classroom is as bad as the absence of singing. This will help so much!”
–Nina Kindt Wilson
“Thank you (Robbin L Marcus!) I find sharing a dance video where someone else teaches is the perfect breather I need to get through my online classes. Also evens the playing field when I have virtual and in-person students together.”
–L.D.
“Thank you SO much!!! What a gift to our profession.”
–E.G.
“How wonderful! This will definitely fill a need. It inspires me to do some of my own virtual folk dance videos, too!”
–Tracy Doty Ward
“I’m watching the videos and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!”
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.
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.
“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.
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.