Michal Warshow & Joel Bluestein

Many things make CDSS important to us. Dancing and music have had a huge impact on our lives, not the least of which was bringing us together. Joel grew up in a musical family and first attended Pinewoods in the early 1970s. Michal remembers her first time at Pinewoods in the 1980s, when she was curious to find out how everybody discovered dancing. She was impressed and hugely jealous that many people were introduced to it by their parents and had grown up with music and dance. We’ve done the same with our children. We started bringing them to CDSS family weeks when they were little; they’re now in their 20s, and dance and music are a central part of their lives.

So many of our close friends are people we have met through dancing, both locally and across the country. This has become even more obvious lately—as we all reach out to our communities for support, the dance community is there for us. On a CDSS Web Chat in April 2020, we were impressed to hear what music and dance communities across the country are doing to keep supporting each other during these difficult times.

There is so much more to this community than “just” singing and dancing. As dance organizers, we are very aware of how CDSS supports our communities and how critical our support is to enabling CDSS to continue its work. It was an easy decision for us to commit to support the Legacy of Joy project, but honestly, we hadn’t gotten around to making the arrangements. But we’ve learned two important things recently: one, you never know when CDSS is going to need extra support; and two, you can’t put off getting your life in order because you think you have lots of time. We made the decision, and we’re putting it in place now. It’s important and it can’t wait.