Balance The Star is a continuation of Mountain Folk Festival at Levi Jackson and in Berea, KY. We’ll dig deep in the folk tradition of dances, music and singing mixed with some more recent folk development. Instructors and leaders include Kathy Anderson, Deborah Thompson, Howard Carlberg, and some mighty fine musicians.
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.
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Michigan
archiving the full set of historic Marley family dances, from the Vaudeville era
Funded by the Anthony G. Barrand Research Fund
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Joel BluesteinJoel Bluestein (Arlington, VA) has been involved in traditional music and dance for pretty much his whole life. His father was a folk musician and scholar, so Joel’s exposure started at birth. He later performed in a folk group with his father and three siblings. He first attended a CDSS camp at Pinewoods as a teenager in the early 1970s. He and his family have been part of the CDSS Buffalo Gap/Timber Ridge/Cascade community for the last 20 years, and he and his wife Michal Warshow were Program Directors for the camp for three years.
Joel has been an active member of the Washington, DC area dance community since 1979, dancing and playing for dances. He served on the Board of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington for 8 years including as President and Treasurer. He was a co-founder and organizer of the Chesapeake Dance Weekend for 36 years, and currently helps to organize the Terpsichore’s Holiday program. He serves as a sound technician for dances and festivals in the DC area and elsewhere.
Avia MooreAvia Moore (Montreal, QC) grew up in the British Columbia folk arts scene; it rubbed off on her and is evident in almost everything she does. Avia has worked extensively as a creative producer with festivals and cultural organizations across North America as well as on individual artistic projects in North America and Europe. Avia is the Artistic Director of KlezKanada.
Avia holds a BA Honors in Drama from the University of Alberta and an MA in Devised Theatre from Dartington College of Arts (England). A PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University (Toronto), she studies heritage cultural practices in/as contemporary performance.
Avia has been making theatre, dancing, and singing her whole life. She has danced with several folk dance performance ensembles and teaches Yiddish dance at festivals and private events around the world. She has been part of organizing committees for contra dances (Brooklyn Contra) and contra weekends (Form the Ocean) and has danced with Ring O’Bells Morris (New York) and Toronto Women’s Sword.
Gaye FiferGaye Fifer (Pittsburgh, PA) hasn’t stopped dancing since she found contras in 1979. Introduced to the community in St. Louis, she has found dancing wherever she goes. Gaye learned to call contras in Charlottesville, VA and has been traveling to call and dance for the past 25 years. After 15 years of dancing, she finally realized that someone had to be doing work to make the dances happen. She began serving on her local dance committee, organizing her local dance weekend, serving on the CDSS Board and leading workshops for other organizers. Gaye is also a passionate teacher and dancer of waltz, having led workshops with her partner, Wayne, at numerous dance weekends around the country. She participated in a course at Pinewoods several years ago to learn how to call English Country dances and now includes that in her repertoire of offerings. She now lives in Pittsburgh, PA. where she retired from a 30 year elementary school teaching career.
Gaye believes in the power of our dance and song community and is delighted to be part of the work CDSS does!
Jeremy Carter-GordonJeremy Carter-Gordon (Concord, MA) grew up singing and dancing around Boston and has woven the threads of that upbringing through the rest of his life. Upon graduating college, Jeremy spent a year on a Watson Fellowship studying sword dancing, which led to an MA in Dance Knowledge, Practice, and Heritage from Choreomundus, a multi-university EU initiative. Jeremy currently tours and teaches most of the year with Windborne, an acclaimed vocal ensemble, singing music from the US and countries and cultures around the world, with a focus on songs of social struggle. Jeremy works for Village Harmony as the Strategic Planning Officer and teaches singing camps for teens. The rest of the time, he can be found teaching rapper and longsword, traditional dance from France (Bal Folk) and Sweden, juggling, dancing ECD, waltzing, and dabbling in tango.
Marni RachmielMarni Rachmiel (Cambridge, UK) grew up outside Detroit and studied Music History/Musicology at the University of Michigan, where she played & sang in concert bands, Early Music Ensemble, Javanese Gamelan, and the U-M Gilbert & Sullivan Society. She started dancing and playing for contra and English dances in 1990 in Albuquerque, NM, when she stumbled into a Bare Necessities weekend that totally changed her life. Returning to Michigan, she was active in the Ann Arbor dance and music scenes and became an avid dance-wanderer, including pilgrimages to Buffalo Gap and Pinewoods.
Shifting west in the later ‘90s, Marni danced and played in and around Boulder, CO, while getting her MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy at Naropa University. The siren song of the Northwest Folklife Festival drew her further west to Seattle, where she moved in 2004.
After many years in Seattle playing with bands, including Contra Sutra, Reverie, and The End Effects, among other dance band configurations, serving on the boards of the Seattle Folklore Society and FAR-West (Folk Alliance Region West), and co-hosting Two Pools House Concerts, currently Marni is on a British adventure living in Cambridge, UK, and gradually getting involved in dance music and organizing across the pond. If you’re traveling to England, say hello!
David SmuklerDavid Smukler (Syracuse, NY) grew up singing folk songs with his mom and began dancing contras in New Hampshire as a teen. In 1981 he was drafted to call for his local dance and has been calling ever since. David calls contras and squares, English country dances, and family and community dances, and is also a choreographer.
David served two previous terms on the CDSS Board and has been a long-time Board member of the Syracuse (New York) Country Dancers. He was involved in creating an innovative Central New York callers gathering, as well as the world’s first Contra Prom.
David is a retired inclusive early childhood and childhood educator who has also taught for years at the college level in a teacher preparation program. He has frequently used dance and song in his teaching, both with children and adults, sometimes to the great surprise of his students. A teacher through and through, David believes that people can always learn and grow. While welcoming change and evolution, David has enormous respect for the value of folk traditions and is the author (with David Millstone) of Cracking Chestnuts: The Living Tradition of Classic American Contra Dances, published in 2008 by CDSS.
Glenn ManuelGlenn Manuel (Richardson, TX) started contra dancing in the early 1980’s, when a co-worker posted a flyer about the dance on the office bulletin board. When the informal dance group morphed into the CDSS affiliate North Texas Traditional Dance Society, Glenn was a founding member. Over the years, he has served on the Board in every role except Secretary, as well as chairing dance weekends, and doing sound at the dances. He took the Sound Operator’s Course at Pinewoods taught by Warren Argo, so actually helped with sound there.
Glenn is the webmaster for the dance group, and has developed and released a free open-source online registration system that is used by several groups. One of Glenn’s hobbies is photography. Besides dance events, his favorite subjects are landscapes and abstracts. He has won a few awards at local photo shows. Besides enjoying the music and dancing, Glenn loves the community aspect of contra dancing. Walking into a dance in nearby cities, neighboring states, or across the country, it always feels like one big dance family. He is excited to support the dance community by serving on the CDSS board.
Michael BeanMichael Bean (Ann Arbor, MI) was introduced to the dance community by joining a local back row band and learning to play for contra dances. He was asked to join a local committee to organize a monthly contra and was soon after nominated for the Ann Arbor Community for Traditional Music and Dance’s Board of Directors. Michael was elected to two terms and served two consecutive years as President of the AACTMAD Board.
Michael is active as an organizer and leader in AACTMAD, Michigan Dance Heritage’s Fall Camp, and CDSS’s Dance, Music, and Spice Camp. Michael led the contra dance band Hotline Strings for four years and still actively plays for contra and ECD. When at home, he enjoys making and restoring violins.
Juliette WebbJuliette Webb (Nashville, TN) started dancing in California after seeing a performance by a demonstration team at the local Scottish Highland Gathering and Games. She and her husband, John Webb, moved away less than a year later. In Tennessee, she enrolled in a class on English country dancing. Seeing the age range of the dancers there made her realize that dancing was an activity that she and her husband could enjoy together throughout their entire lifetimes.
Juliette’s home dance community runs weekly English country dance classes, monthly English dances, and weekly contra dances. The Nashville Country Dancers also hold both an English country dance weekend, the Nashville Playford Ball, and a contra dance weekend, Music City Masquerade, each year, in addition to hosting special dance events when visiting musicians or callers come to town. She feels lucky to have such an amazing, supportive dance community and leadership at home.
Juliette is also fortunate to enjoy dancing regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. Juliette began calling English as a way of helping to ensure that her home dance community would continue.
Juliette’s earliest memory of dancing is of a Maypole, in a place where May Day baskets of flowers were still left for friends and neighbors. After an early childhood filled with the typical ballet classes, she didn’t dance again for decades, not even in gym class in school. Now, she dances as often as she can.
Justin MorrisonJustin Morrison (he/him, Richmond, VT) has been a part of song and dance communities in Canada and the US for as long as he can remember. He earned his first Pinewoods crew t-shirt around age 7, and has taught Morris classes there in (much) later years. During a tour with the dance collective he co-founded, Maple Morris, Justin won the Best New Entrant prize at the Sidmouth Folkweek Morris jig competition in 2011 and respectfully declines to mention how many other new entrants were performing that year. In 2013, he was an organizer and artistic director of an international Morris stage show for Maple, which brought together dancers from Canada, the US, and the UK. He currently travels various distances to enjoy English, Contra, and song, and dances Morris with the Toronto Morris Men, Pinewoods Morris Men, and Thames Valley International.
He is an educator in his professional life, and seeks to bring singing, music, or dance into the classroom every day. He has been excited to share songs with colleagues to bring into their own classrooms and even teach them to play mandolin.
Justin feels that dance and song can find a chord in all of us, and comprise a natural language understood by young and old alike.
Last updated September 29, 2022
The Cultural Equity Advisory Group met from March 2021 to March 2022 to critically analyze our programs, operations, and governance, and to provide recommendations for changes. In recognition of the importance of this work, members were paid an honorarium for their time, energy, and participation.
Click here to view the Executive Summary and Recommended Equity Action Plan from the CDSS Cultural Equity Advisory Group. We are taking these recommendations into consideration as we plan for 2023 and our new strategic plan.
Click here to view the steps we are taking to intertwine equity and inclusion in the remainder of our work this year. (We will update this list to include our 2023 work later this year.)
Dena Ross Jennings (Group Facilitator)Dena Ross Jennings (she/her) is a human rights activist, musician, instrument-maker, and a medical doctor, and brings over 20 years of experience working on conflict transformation with her organization Imani Works.
You can find out more about Dena’s work on her website.
Hannah AssefaHannah Assefa (she/her) is an elementary educator who has worked with children for most of her life, whether it be through private instruction in traditional fiddle or as an educator in the classroom. She grew up in Northern Vermont playing Scottish and Cape Breton style fiddle. Hannah has taught in various classroom settings from early childhood education to elementary and, in each environment, she has worked to make a classroom community in which each student is celebrated, nurtured, seen, and heard.
Hannah currently teaches kindergarten at Milton Elementary School. She holds a Master of Education degree in curriculum & instruction from Southern New Hampshire University (2016) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in music & elementary education from Saint Michael’s College (2013).
Cayley BucknerCayley Buckner (she/her or they/them) will be graduating from the University of Florida in May 2021 with a B.A. in English and a B.S. in natural resource conservation and a minor in education. She is passionate about outdoor education. She fell in love with contra dancing in August 2016 at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC.
Cayley is the 2020-2021 president of the Gainesville Oldtime Dance Society, where she has been a strong advocate for gender neutral calling, especially positional calling. She is also the co-founder of the Safety Team (a group of individuals who ensure that all feel welcome and secure) and the I.D.E.A. (inclusivity, diversity, equity, and accessibility) subcommittee (which brings a diverse group of individuals together to address social justice issues within our community).
Rima DaelRima (she/her) has over 25 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations in public media, arts, education & the human service sectors. She is currently the general manager at WSHU Public Radio in Fairfield, CT, having previously worked at New England Public Radio in Springfield, MA. Rima is passionate about the essential role of public media in our communities and the transformational power of the arts. Rima was the executive director for the Country Dance & Song Society during its centennial celebration in 2015, transitioning the membership organization to a capacity building, arts service organization through a multi-city community residency model to build resilient dance, music, and song communities and improve skills of dance organizers. Rima was also a founding faculty member in the Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy master’s degree program at Bay Path University. She continues to enjoy teaching online as an adjunct professor in the program.
Originally from the Philippines, Rima spent her early years in Connecticut, and in several Southeast Asian countries with her family attending international schools. Living overseas also exposed Rima to military coups in Thailand, the People’s Revolution in the Philippines, and she participated in the Tiananmen Square protests in Hong Kong as a teenager. These foundational experiences brought forth Rima’s interest in working in mission driven organizations that promote social justice and community advancement.
Rima received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology and theater arts from Mt. Holyoke College. Her master’s degree is in nonprofit management from the Milano School of Management & Urban Policy at the New School University, where she was a Community Development Finance Fellow.
Ezra FischerEzra (he/him) started making the trip from his home in New Jersey to Pinewoods for Campers’ Week 30 years ago. Since then, that trip has become a regular part of his life and much shorter since he moved to the Boston area where he now lives in Arlington, MA. He was particularly thrilled to work for CDSS as a Salesforce admin and consultant over the past few years because of the opportunity to contribute to an organization that has been such a steadily positive influence on his life. Ezra dances with Still River Sword, sings with Boston Harmony, and studiously does not play either the trombone or concertina.
Nadia GayaNadia Gaya (she/her) was the little kid sleeping under the piano at her fiddle-playing parents’ gigs and grew up immersed in the traditional music and dance community of Western New York, where she was raised. Nadia currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, and was on the organizing board of Brooklyn Contra from 2012-2015. Nadia currently dances and plays diatonic button accordion with the Ring O’ Bells Morris team, plays piano for the CDNY in-house band, the Contrapolitans, and plays piano accordion with the scottish-inspired contra dance band, Torrent. When she’s not playing, dancing, singing or crafting, Nadia is a tax attorney/accountant for an advertising technology company and is busy raising her 4-year old daughter in whom she hopes to foster a lifelong love of traditional music, song and dance.
Aravind NatarajanAravind Natarajan (he/him) is a contra dancer and identifies as a cis-hetero male from India. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, and is passionate about fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in academic spaces. He founded the Science Blender podcast to capture the experiences of scientists from diverse backgrounds and identities. He loves how music and dance bring people together and is eager to make this joy more widely accessible.
Stephanie VoncannonStephanie Marie Voncannon (she/her) is a contra dancer and caller in the Charlotte, NC, area. She has been dancing mostly in North Carolina since 2009 and calling regularly since 2013. Stephanie attended Lisa Greenleaf’s week-long caller class at Pinewoods Camp in summer 2016. She has called at both mainstream and gender-free dances. Stephanie also enjoys helping others discover a love of dancing, whether calling or dancing at home. Stephanie was also very involved in the LGBT community in Charlotte, including planning the Transgender Day of Remembrance from 2008 to 2010.
Bailey WaltonBailey Walton (she/they) is a community organizer, research ethicist by trade, and banjo player from Missouri. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s in public administration, and currently studies studio art. She is passionate about community-building, growing and sharing food, and connecting people with resources. She is excited to have the opportunity to provide her input in this advisory group as a relative newcomer to the traditional music community.
Earl WhiteEarl White (he/him) has been a prominent member of the music and dance community for more than 50 years. He is an original and founding member of the famed Green Grass Cloggers. He is one of few Black Americans perpetuating Appalachian music, which was once an important part of Black communities. Now retired from healthcare as a Registered Respiratory Therapist, he continues to play music as a semi-professional, and co-owns and runs the Big Indian Farm sourdough bakery in Floyd County, VA.
CDSS is convening a Cultural Equity Advisory Group to help us move forward in our commitment to cultural equity. We are asking ourselves: In a CDSS with a fully realized core value of cultural equity, how would things look/feel different? How would we know that we were successful in an ongoing way?
We recognize that our organization and leadership do not currently have the kind of representation—particularly of non-white people—needed for this work. We want to make decisions informed by the voices of the people most affected; however, we don’t want to tokenize anyone by placing the expectation of labor solely on them.
We are asking the Advisory Group to give guidance within the broad framework of our existing mission. We seek to support and promote the living traditions that are dear to us in ways that are actively anti-oppressive. We want to understand the ways that harm was done in the past and work to stop perpetuating that harm. We want to make sure that, in our work and play, we carry out our mission of strengthening and supporting communities in a way that builds more equitable relationships.
We are engaged in the process of analyzing how the ways that we operate – both historically and currently – contribute to inequity. We are re-evaluating our programming, research and scholarship, education, access, marketing, relationships with other organizations, organizational structure, and compensation. We are committed to investing labor and financial resources into this work.
The Cultural Equity Advisory Group will consist of a contracted facilitator and 6-10 people, drawn from our current communities as well as the larger participatory arts community and beyond. The group will prioritize the voices of those who have been marginalized and/or erased in the history and current practice of North American folkways. The group should also include a diversity of skill sets, including non-profit experience, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work, and historical scholarship.
We are asking that Advisors commit to 1 year of service, which will include attending monthly remote group meetings, and some research and preparation between meetings. The Facilitator will work with the Cultural Equity Task Group (staff and board) to create a timeline and benchmarks.
In recognition of the time and labor inherent in a working Advisory Group, CDSS is able to offer the Advisors an honorarium in the amount of $750. The Group Facilitator will receive a consulting fee of $3000.
Luanne StilesLuanne Stiles (Asheville, NC) discovered traditional dance later in life upon spotting an advertisement in the local Amherst, MA, newspaper for a Monday night English country dance. She thought, “‘No experience needed, no partner needed, all dances taught,’ that’s me!” Her love of the variety of dance tempos, amazing musicians, thoughtful teaching, and a generous community had her immediately hooked. For over 15 years, Luanne has danced extensively in communities and at camps throughout the Northeast and Southeast as well as California, Ohio, Illinois, and Canada. Luanne organized dance events in Massachusetts, and, after moving to the Carolinas, she and her husband John lead a biweekly ECD in South Carolina. After moving to Asheville, she continues calling and has joined the Ashegrove Garland team. It was the move south that really drove home the support CDSS provides to its affiliates. She was a community member on the Fund Development Committee for the past two years and is happy to continue to “pay it forward” by contributing as a board member. Luanne believes that her professional experiences within the corporate world of insurance services will serve to assist CDSS’s vision and goals.
Susan EnglishSusan English (Wooster, OH) taught her first dance class on a rooftop in China in 1980. In 2017, she returned to China with a $50,000 cultural exchange grant from the US State Department featuring the Country Dancers of Berea, KY. With living and working experience also in Europe, West Africa, and the US, Susan brings her enthusiasm for people of every background.
A competitive swing dancer for a year in DC, Susan has called monthly contra and square dances since 1990. With her late husband, Bill Alkire, Susan co-developed the intergenerational program at Terpsichore’s Holiday. Together, they choreographed and performed “Minuet to Macarena: The History of Couple Dance in 20 Minutes.”
At home in Wooster, OH, Susan is artistic director of the Madrigal Dancers, an intergenerational performing group. Since the start of the pandemic, Susan has broadcast weekly Zoom dances from her basement and has called virtual contra dances for Atlanta; Glen Echo; Bloomington, IN; and Lake City, WA. She looks forward to again calling live contra, square, and English country dances, plus weddings and barn dances, homeschool, Civil War, and Jane Austen Balls. With her PhD in higher education and consulting experience with strategic evaluation, Susan cares a lot about quality programs for lifelong growth and learning.
Jenna BarronJenna Barron (Easthampton, MA) literally stumbled across contra dancing almost 15 years ago in Washington, DC. Heading to Glen Echo to see a performance, she spied a large group of people in the ballroom holding hands and walking in a circle. After blowing off the performance and spending all night at the Friday Night Dance instead, she was hooked! After dancing contras, squares, waltzes, and English in the DC area for several years, she and her husband moved to the Pioneer Valley, in no small part due to the great music and dance community. She is a founding member of Oxbow Morris and has enjoyed attending programming at Pinewoods and Cascade camp weeks.
After a decade in regional theater as a stage manager, Jenna is now the Director of Communications and Development for a nonprofit focused on equitable clean energy deployment. Jenna also serves on the Board of Directors for her local library, leading their fundraising efforts. She looks forward to using these skills to help CDSS build and sustain vibrant communities through participatory dance, music, and song.
Margaret BaryMargaret Bary (Brooklyn, NY) is a lifelong dancer and dance educator. She teaches English country dance at Country Dance New York and other dances in the region, founded a family folk dance at her school, and calls community dances at a variety of local venues. Along with her family, she has been a regular participant in CDSS Campers’ Week for many years, leading dances for all ages, teaching sword dance workshops, and serving a stint as Program Director.
Margaret is active on the steering committee of Pourparler, a national gathering of teachers of traditional dance and music in schools and communities. As a member of Half Moon Sword, she hosts the NYC English Sword Dance Ale and performs locally, as well as at festivals such as NEFFA and the Marlboro Ale.
Margaret has a background in modern dance, holds an MFA in Dance Choreography and is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst. She recently retired as Dance Specialist and the Performing Arts Chair at Brooklyn Friends School, where she incorporated folk and sword dances into her creative dance curriculum. Underlying all of her work with children and adults, Margaret believes that participatory dance experiences foster joy, self-expression, and connection between people.
Norman FarrellNorman Farrell (Ridgefield, WA) discovered community dance by accident in 2006 after years of wondering why the dancing he enjoyed so much at fiddle camp wasn’t happening everywhere. Go figure. Tulsa, OK, and Lawrence, KS, were Norman’s original dance communities, and he soon found himself volunteering at the annual Pilgrims Progression Dance Weekend and playing for a local family dance in Bartlesville, OK.
Now, retired in the Pacific Northwest, Portland, OR, and Vancouver, WA, have become Norman’s dance home where weekly dancing (in the “before times”), paid and volunteer music, and being part of the Vancouver contra dance organization are a vital part of life. Playing in the Portland Megaband horn section has been an annual thrill since 2017.
Norman grew up in Oklahoma as part of a large dairy farming family and has been a lifelong musician since successfully begging for piano lessons at age 10. An omnivorous musical appetite led to performing at local cultural events and festivals and playing for several years with the Amarillo Wind Ensemble. Work-related travel brought a chance to encounter the rich tapestry of community dance and music around the world from Alaska to Australia and life-enriching experiences which Norman hopes to support and grow through direct CDSS participation.
Alice KenneyAlice Kenney (Leyden, MA) moved to southern Vermont where she was introduced to contra dancing, shape note singing, and the wonderful music and storytelling of Peter and Mary Alice Amidon. She was introduced to CDSS Family Week to help the Amidons care for their (then) toddler, Sam, while they worked. Long before they were married, it was there she met Stuart Kenney, with whom she established a successful dance series at the renowned Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA. In addition to contra dancing, they offered a Quebecois Immersion Weekend intensive for musicians for ten years and produced countless concerts of traditional music.
Alice believes that music and dance are an integral part of her life and others’. In her longtime professional career as a physical therapist, she is known to dance with her clients, using music to facilitate their recovery. For all it has brought and continues to bring to her quality of life and the lives of so many others, Alice is delighted to give back to CDSS!
Robbin MarcusRobbin Marcus (Stonecrest, GA) is a well-known caller of contras, squares and community dances. Robbin started dancing contra, English and morris in Baltimore, MD after college, and happily attended American Week at Pinewoods for the first time in 1986. As a music educator, Robbin quickly ascertained the importance of accurate traditional music and dance performance styles in the classroom — something she might not have understood were it not for CDSS. Subsequently she has been on staff for numerous CDSS weeks at Pinewoods Camp teaching both adult and kids classes (including a stint as Program Director of Family Week), and has enjoyed several recent opportunities to call contras and teach Alexander Technique at Christmas Country Dance School in Berea, KY.
Robbin teaches graduate level certification courses in Kodály Music Education, Folk Song Research/Analysis, Folk Dance, and Alexander Technique in the summer at George Mason University, where she is the Summer Kodály Program Director Emeritus. She is frequently in demand as a clinician throughout the United States. At home, Robbin teaches piano and Alexander Technique lessons in Atlanta, GA. Robbin plays piano for both contras and English country dances throughout the South, and is greatly enjoying branching out as a musician in bands with her husband Dave Marcus.
Craig MeltznerCraig Meltzner (Santa Rosa, CA) began contra dancing in the late 1980s. Craig and his wife Elaine met international folk dancing and later took up contra dancing with a passion. They raised their daughters dancing and value how this community embraced their family. Craig began English country dancing 10 years ago and enjoys sharing ECD with his contra dance friends. He is also an avid modern western square dancer.
Craig has been a board member of North Bay Country Dance Society (NBCDS) in California’s Bay Area for about 15 years, serving several terms as president. Pre-COVID, Craig helped program a monthly contra dance series and the two NBCDS contra dance weekends. During the pandemic, Craig has assisted with the popular weekly Saturday Evening Waltz Party on Zoom.
Craig leads a small affordable housing finance group, working extensively with non-profit organizations. He has also worked as a non-profit executive director and senior program director.
Craig previously served on the CDSS Board from 2015-2018, including as Treasurer. “Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race,” said Pete Seeger. That’s how Craig sees our local dance and music communities functioning and that’s what CDSS is here to encourage and support. Craig is honored to rejoin the CDSS Board. Let’s spread the joy we share singing, dancing, and making music together!
Diane SilverDiane Silver (Asheville, NC) is an environmental educator with 20+ years providing environmental outreach and action-taking in the non-profit arena. From work with zoos, residential program centers, the NC Extension Service, and charter schools, she brings extensive experience in program development and management, teaching, team-building, staff supervision and evaluation, budget management, grant writing, and logistics. She also has significant training in conflict resolution and positive communication. She has over 15 years’ experience serving on other boards-of-directors for educational, environmental, and dance organizations, including terms as President.
Diane has been a contra dancer, flatfoot-clogger, caller, teacher, and developing fiddle-player for over 20 years. She has served in many roles in her local dance and music community: booking performers, serving on the board, helping produce the annual dance weekend, and serving on various task forces and committees. She continues to be drawn by the sense of community within and among local dance groups, and the generally welcoming culture of home-grown music and dance. She sees in the dance community the opportunity to discuss, practice, and model the ideals she holds for larger society, facilitating joy and neighborliness from the grass-roots up.
Chris WeilerChris Weiler (South Burlington, VT) discovered contra dancing on New Year’s Eve in 1995 after being prodded by a friend for months to give it a try. Even though he didn’t believe he could dance, he had so much fun that he kept going to David Kaynor’s Friday night dances in Greenfield, MA. Eventually learning he was wrong about his abilities, he started dancing ECD, ballroom & swing. In 2004, he attended his first CDSS camp (American D&M Week) and called his first dance at camper’s night. After that first camp, with Seth Seeger, he started Shared Weight, an e-mail list serve where callers, organizers and musicians can exchange ideas. He became a regular caller in the New England area and started the Mill City Dance in Manchester, NH in 2005. He has also choreographed a few contra dances that get called here and there. In 2008 he was one of the founding members of Boston Intergenerational Dance Advocates (BIDA) in Cambridge, MA.
Chris supports his dance habit as a freelance mechanical engineer helping companies design new consumer products. Recently relocated to the Burlington VT area, he and his wife Anne are looking forward to getting involved in local dance events and bringing up their toddler son in the dance community.
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Ben Williams grew up in the suburbs of Boston and now lives in Northampton, MA. He began working for CDSS in fall of 2018. He’s responsible for CDSS’s publications, including digital publications and the online library. He also runs the store and coordinates insurance and 501(c)(3) services for Group Affiliates.
Ben has been a life-long singer and began contra dancing in Greenfield while he attended UMass Amherst for journalism and psychology (after a brief stint in chemistry). While not singing and dancing he enjoys playing games (board, card, and otherwise), woodworking, and other craft projects. He also helps run a local meditation center and a Buddhist summer camp for children ages 10-16.
Anne lives and works in Orlando, FL. She graduated from Hampshire College in 1995 and has been designing and building websites ever since. In 2019, she joined the CDSS team as webmaster, taking care of updates, maintenance, and design.
Anne’s dance career began and ended at age 4, when the ballet teacher told her parents not to bother sending her back. However, she enjoys singing with the Orlando Gay Chorus, and her time with CDSS has inspired her to dip a toe into contra dance. Her other interests include travel, cooking, needlepoint, and Star Wars.
Nicki Perez is a long-time singer and dancer who grew up performing with Revels North, Village Harmony, and various other local groups in New England. After touring in Europe with Northern Harmony, she moved to Northampton, MA, where she now resides.
Nicki has worked at CDSS since 2016. Most recently, as the Gifts & Database Coordinator, she works with the Finance Team to ensure your gifts are processed quickly and correctly. Outside of work, you can find Nicki reading novels, powerlifting, and learning new languages.
Hailing from Honolulu and now living in San Diego, Audrey cut her folk teeth in the Boston area, attending Berklee College of Music and spending years exploring the thriving New England folk scene and attending her first Pinewoods camp thanks to the CDSS youth scholarship.
You probably know Audrey best as a contra and English country dance fiddle player, having traveled the country with her bands The Free Raisins, The Gaslight Tinkers, Audacious (with Larry Unger), and Wake Up Robin. As the new Membership Coordinator, she’s excited to get to know you more and pay it forward in the community.
Sarah grew up contra dancing near the Washington-Idaho border and now lives in Burlington, VT. She was introduced to English country dance at Oberlin College, where she also studied neuroscience, biology, math, and music. She has served on the board of directors for Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, MA, and has a professional background in customer service and data management.
Sarah plays viola and violin for English country dances, where she has found her music and dance home. She loves her garden, native bee and bird visitors, and the bike path along Lake Champlain, where she also enjoys cross-country skiing and rollerblading. She appreciates a good word game or jigsaw puzzle and wishes she had more time for weaving and pottery.
Robin started dancing when she arrived at Swarthmore College in 1983, and soon after, following only a few years of teaching 4th grade, began working for CDSS as a volunteer when both she and the office (coincidentally) moved to Western MA. What began in 1987 as a volunteer Membership Secretary role grew, as CDSS grew over the next 35 years, into Robin’s deeply fulfilling work as Director of Development, in which she is grateful to be able to offer CDSS’s many friends the opportunity to support our important work through membership and generous giving.
After 22 years of residing and raising her two children in Amherst, MA, she has settled in a quiet house of her own in Greenfield. A widely-traveled English country dancer and leader, she recently retired from 25 years as the organizer of the weekly English dance in Amherst.
Sarah is a New England transplant from Takoma Park, MD, now living in Winooski, VT. Her first involvement with CDSS was as a young camper at Family Week. She went on to join the Governing Board as a college student, and then later in 2016, was hired to work in the office in Easthampton. Sarah currently serves as the Director of Operations, guiding the smooth functioning of the organization’s systems and processes.
Sarah grew up in a music & dance family and has been involved in the folk community her entire life. Recently, she has been developing her mellophone chops by playing with The Brass Balagan, an activist street band based in Burlington, VT. Sarah is a graduate of Oberlin College and Boston University and holds a M.A. in Marine Biology (ask her about talking to fish!). Other hobbies/interests include: board games, crochet, flower gardening, and parades.
Although many people in our community know Joanna as an excellent dance leader, what makes her perfect for this role is her expertise in nonprofit financial management and experience working with cultural organizations on data-driven program design. Joanna joins CDSS from SMU DataArts, where she evaluated cultural organization needs and designed organizational strength trainings for adult learners in the cultural community. She lives in Cheltenham, PA.
Kelsey works for CDSS from her home near Nashville, TN. As Marketing and Communications Manager, she oversees News publications, designs camp promotions, writes social media content, and much more.
Kelsey works with Robin Hayden and Nicki Perez on the Development team and with anyone else in the office who needs art! She joined CDSS in 2019 after having been a primary school music teacher, a university graphic designer, and a guitar builder.
Kelsey plays fiddle and banjo in the dance bands Turnip the Beet and Silver Sail, spending many weekends traveling to dance festivals around the country. She is the founder and co-leader of the Nashville Country Dancers community open band and served as the US delegate to the world folk music project Ethno Flanders in 2017. Outside of playing music, Kelsey enjoys making crankies and hiking with her pup, Isham.
Anna grew up in Canada and went to the University of Manitoba for her B.S. in Accounting and Mathematics. She now lives in West Springfield, MA with her husband and two children. Prior to joining CDSS, she started and ran her own business for 5 years in Canada, and then worked for Girl Scouts of Pioneer Valley as their Accounting/Finance Manager. She joined CDSS in December 2011. As Accounting Manager, she oversees organization accounting activities and processes.
During most of her time off from CDSS, she is busy driving her two kids to their activities and taking care of her mother both remotely and in Canada. She loves traveling and learning about different cultures from the places she visits. She was fortunate enough to be able to give her children their first overseas trip to Asia last summer. She hopes she will be able to continue her travels after the kids are all grown up.
Julie grew up in Barkhamsted, CT and after graduating from the University of Central Florida moved out to Missoula, MT for a brief period before moving back to Barkhamsted to raise her three children. She has a M.S. in Accounting from the University of Connecticut and B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida. Prior to joining CDSS, Julie worked at several nonprofit organizations in CT. She joined CDSS in December of 2019 as the Director of Finance and is responsible for the organization’s finances and human resources.
When Julie is not at the office, she is enjoying the outdoors, running, skiing or hiking with family and friends. She loves traveling and was fortunate to enjoy a month-long RV trip across the United States with her family in 2018. She visited 28 states and drove 9529 miles.
A native of Berea, Kentucky, Katy grew up immersed in traditional song, dance, and music. Her first involvement with CDSS was as a camper at CDSS Family Week at Pinewoods as a teenager, where she fell in love with the work of CDSS. Over the years she’s continued to support the organization as a CDSS member, donor, camp instructor, camp program director, and board member.
Before becoming the Executive Director of CDSS in 2017, Katy spent 6 years in clinical trials data management, and 7 years in food banking, where she supervised a remote team that worked with 200 partner agencies to end hunger in western North Carolina. Today Katy is blending her previous professional experiences with her love of traditional dance, music, and song, as she leads CDSS in becoming a high-functioning remote team, rooted in a strong mission, and harnessing today’s technology to bridge geographic distance.
Outside the office you might find Katy paddle-boarding with her family, singing with others, driving her two kids around to any number of activities, working in the yard, reading novels, or planning some big gathering or adventure.
