A Google map with many local dances in the US and Canada. Also searchable by zip code, for special events, and for dances using non-gendered calling. Created by Jeff Kaufman.
Colin Hume presents descriptions and commentary on all of the 200+ square dances in Northern Junket, a magazine published by Ralph Page from 1949 to 1985.
CDSS Community Culture & Safety Toolkit
The CDSS Community Culture and Safety Task Group (CCSTG) aims to support local communities in their efforts to provide a safe environment for music, song, and dance events. We are working to provide advice and resources that will help organizers develop the policies, procedures, and supporting documents needed to understand and facilitate safety in their communities.
CDSS is not prescriptive in regard to what your community ‘should be doing.’ We recognize and value the range of living traditions practiced by our communities.
As such, we are working to develop a toolkit of resources.
Shared Weight: Positional Calling Discussion List
This list is for anyone interested in exploring positional calling within traditional dance (contra, squares, ECD, community, family dance, Irish ceili, Scottish ceilidh, etc).
Our goal is to support each other by discussing topics of interest to callers specifically in relation to positional calling. We encourage callers to also join some of the other Shared Weight lists as those communities are valuable resources for other aspects of calling.
This article by Carol Ormond gives excellent tips on how organizers can create a great gig experience for a caller. Much of the advice applies to other hired staff as well.
From the CDSS News
An extensive survey of approximately 400 contra dance callers throughout North America and beyond. Interesting and useful information for organizers and callers alike
From CDSS, 2013
Working with Crowded Dance Halls
In this piece, Brad Foster explores some solutions on how to handle dances where the crowd is too large for the space.
From the CDSS News
Marian Rose provides some fantastic calling tips as well as suggestions for dances to do when accommodating young children as part of your dancing community
From the CDSS News
Jeremy Child explores positional calling as a way to expand the boundaries of choreography.
Miriam Newman explains the movement towards asking people about their pronouns.
From the CDSS News
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.