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Building Cultural Equity in Communities

October 25, 2022

An online discussion to support organizers of dance, music, and song groups

This Web Chat provided firsthand experiences from organizers who have used CDSS grants to provide diversity, equity, and inclusion training for their groups. We heard about ways they have been applying what they’ve learned from these valuable workshops, and what’s next for their groups. We also included plenty of time for Q&A. Our special guests were:

Cindy Culbert and Rich Dempsey: Country Dancers of Rochester (Rochester, NY)
Janet Yeracaris and Vince O’Donnell: New England Folk Festival Association (New England region)
Lauren Keeley: DanceFlurry Organization (Albany, NY)

Make Every Space Safer in Trad Music Communities

Nasons, VA
Creating a set of community agreements that people in our music communities can commit to

Ideas for Weathering the Winter Together

During the CDSS Web Chat on November 1, 2021, participants brainstormed ideas for keeping their music, dance, and song groups engaged and connected through the coming months. See below for a compilation of their suggestions for organizers to try out with their communities. We’re happy to continue adding to this list, so please send your thoughts to resources@cdss.org. All ideas welcome!

Reentry Resources for Organizers

Originally published September 2021.

Introduction

One key question that keeps cropping up as we prepare for restarting in-person activities is: How will we know when the time is right? All music, dance, and song groups need to chart their own course based on their location, state and local public health guidance, type of event, and community needs. We hope the following set of resources will help organizers navigate the myriad decisions involved with safely resuming in-person events.

Sharing the Vision: Themes and Practical Ideas for Vibrant Dance Communities

A pithy article from Max Newman on the importance of a vision, how to create one and how to share it.

From the CDSS News

Lissa Schneckenburger’s Tune A Week

Square Dance History with David Millstone

Experience the rich history and regional variety of square dancing in this in-depth, three part video series.

With photographs, audio, and video, we’ll travel:

from 17^th century France to Civil War ballrooms
from New England Grange halls to Texas cowboy balls
and from Newfoundland to New Mexico

to explore and discuss how this dance form became a staple of American popular culture.

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.

Shared Weight: Growing Up Trad Discussion List

Growing up Trad! is an email discussion list for caregiving adults who love traditional dance, music and song. The focus of our conversation is around nurturing these traditions within our families and in particular with the children in our care.

Shared Weight: Dance Organizers Discussion List

This mailing list welcomes organizers and those interested in organizing any form of traditional social dance. This includes contra, English country, traditional squares (e.g., Appalachian, New England, Quebecois, Cape Breton, etc), community/family/barn, ceili, Balfolk, and more!