Starting in January 2026, we will review grant applications and distribute funds three times per year. Applications will still be accepted on a rolling basis; please use the dates below to find the funding period that works best for you.
Click below for our requirements of grantees, including publicity, acknowledgement, and a follow-up grant impact report.
For questions about the suitability of your application, contact [email protected].
We’ll be in touch the month after your cycle’s application deadline with a grant decision or if we have any questions with your application. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email [email protected]. Thank you for the work you do to support dance, music, and song!
Waltham, MA
Researching Ukrainian and Russian émigrés whose folk music and dance enriched and enlivened the folk music scene in 20th century North America.
Creating a collection of square dances and thoughts toward promoting inclusivity
Guilford, VT
Hosting a series of bal folk dances with live music
Campton, NH
Hosting a community Renaissance dance to showcase young musicians and callers
Housatonic, MA
Starting a new dance series for all ages
Brasstown, NC
Hosting a community dance series using positional calling
Moab, UT
Hosting a series of workshops for new callers
Funded by the Mary Kay Friday Leadership Training Fund
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
Richmond, VA
Hosting workshops for dance musicians
Funded by the Chuck Ward Musicians Training Fund
Dodgeville, WI
Continuing a contra dance weekend post-COVID
Funded by the May Gadd/Phil Merrill Fund
Rhododendron, OR
Creating a youth-oriented traditional singing event in the Pacific Northwest
Funded by the Mary Kay Friday Leadership Training Fund
Marlboro, VT
Hosting a weekend of community dances and workshops for musicians
Lawrence, KS
Hosting a festive dance weekend and callers’ workshop
Burlington, VT
Creating a community family contra dance for all ages and abilities
Funded by the May Gadd/Phil Merrill Fund
Michigan
Archiving the full set of historic Marley family dances, from the Vaudeville era
Funded by the Anthony Barrand Research & Stewardship Fund
Nasons, VA
Creating a set of community agreements that people in our music communities can commit to
Albany, NY
Participating in online diversity, equity, and inclusion training
Northampton, MA
Providing online lessons with New England musicians
Bloomington, IN
Hosting a workshop for new contra dance callers
Funded by the Mary Kay Friday Leadership Training Fund
Madison, WI
Hosting an open band workshop for the Madison Contra Collective Band
Funded by the Mary Kay Friday Leadership Training Fund
There is strong interest amongst organizers in hearing news from communities that have already resumed in-person events. This Web Chat provided valuable experiences and suggestions from two dance and song organizers who are already navigating their reentry, as well as perspectives from a public health professional.
For this Web Chat, CDSS hired an attorney to address some of our broader community’s legal questions. Other panelists provided resources and considerations to help organizers chart their group’s course for safely emerging from the pandemic. Ultimately, each group needs to ask their own questions and find answers that are right for their location, type of event, and community. We’re all in this together!
In this third installment of the “Let’s Talk About Reentry” Web Chat series, we featured presentations and discussions about how the pandemic has altered our communities’ needs and how we can best prepare for returning to in-person dancing, singing, and music-making.
Members of the Sacred Harp group FaSoLa Philadelphia (PA) and the Phoenix (AZ) Traditional Music & Dance Society joined us for this conversation. During the Web Chat, they shared their successes with using the computer program Jamulus to enable their groups to sing and play music in real time!
During this down time, there is work we can be doing to ensure a joyful and fulfilling return to the dance floor. We talked about our evolving expectations for reentry, the changes we need to prepare for, and the important role organizers can play in preparing our communities for a bright future.
Many organizers of song groups are finding creative ways to keep your community engaged and connected during the pandemic. In this Web Chat, we heard from organizers about experiences that are working well in their song groups. We featured a few guest speakers and took time for Q&A, open conversation, and breakout rooms.
This Web Chat was hosted by Katy German, CDSS Executive Director. We addressed the BIG questions on organizers’ minds: How can we keep our communities safe in a pandemic? When can we dance and sing in the same place again? What does it mean to be a dance/music/song organizer when we can’t be together?
This exciting Web Chat connected 135 music, dance, and song organizers from far and wide! We launched a new online resource to share many of the creative ideas contributed by these communities.
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.
