 | |
| Abbreviation | CDSS |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1915 |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Headquarters | Easthampton, Massachusetts [1] |
Region served | United States and Canada |
Membership | 2400 individuals and 260 affiliate groups [2] |
| Katy German | |
Budget | $1.2 million (2021) [3] |
Staff | 12 [4] |
| Website | www.cdss.org |
The Country Dance and Song Society (abbreviated CDSS) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote participatory dance, music, and song with English and North American roots. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
CDSS began in 1915 as a series of American chapters of the English Dance and Folk Society established by Cecil Sharp. [10] The organization consolidated in 1940 and grew steadily through the present. [11] Today, it supports over 260 local affiliate groups. [12]
CDSS promotes a number of types of participatory dance, including contra dance, [13] English country dance, square dance, [14] morris dance, rapper sword, and clogging. [15]
CDSS runs several week-long summer camps at Pinewoods Dance Camp (MA), [16] Camp Cavell (MI), Agassiz Village (ME), and Camp Louise (MD). [17] They also run web chats [18] and other online programs year-round. [19]
Contra dance is a form of folk dancing made up of long lines of couples. It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles in the 17th century. Sometimes described as New England folk dance or Appalachian folk dance, contra dances can be found around the world, but are most common in the United States, Canada, and other Anglophone countries.
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations, music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that.
A country dance is any of a very large number of social dances of a type that originated in the British Isles; it is the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of figures, carefully designed to fit a fixed length of music, performed by a group of people, usually in couples, in one or more sets. The figures involve interaction with your partner and/or with other dancers, usually with a progression so that you dance with everyone in your set. It is common in modern times to have a "caller" who teaches the dance and then calls the figures as you dance. Country dances are done in many different styles.
A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances are part of a broad spectrum of dances known by various names: country dances, traditional dances, folk dances, barn dances, ceilidh dances, contra dances, Playford dances, etc. These dances appear in over 100 different formations, of which the Square and the Longways Set are by far the most popular formations.
The folk music of England is a tradition-based music which has existed since the later medieval period. It is often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music. Folk music traditionally was preserved and passed on orally within communities, but print and subsequently audio recordings have since become the primary means of transmission. The term is used to refer both to English traditional music and music composed or delivered in a traditional style.
Cecil James Sharp was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England during the Edwardian period. According to Roud’s Folk Song in England, Sharp was the country's "single most important figure in the study of folk song and music."
Ashley Stephen Hutchings, MBE, sometimes known in early years as "Tyger" Hutchings, is an English bassist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founding member of three noteworthy English folk-rock bands: Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band. Hutchings has overseen numerous other projects, including records and live theatre, and has collaborated on film and television projects.
The New England Folk Festival is an annual weekend festival of traditional dance and music. It takes place in the Boston, Massachusetts region each spring. It is conducted by the New England Folk Festival Association. Both the festival and the association are colloquially known by the abbreviation NEFFA. NEFFA is a participatory festival; attendees are encouraged to participate in dancing, singing, musical jam sessions, and other activities. It is run by volunteers and all the performers are volunteers as well.
"This Old Man" is an English language children's song, counting exercise, and nursery rhyme with a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3550.
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles, the African music and blues of early African Americans, and to a lesser extent the music of Continental Europe.
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodicals, audio-visual materials, photographic images and sound recordings, as well as manuscripts, field notes, transcriptions etc. of a number of collectors of folk music and dance traditions in the British Isles. According to A Dictionary of English Folklore, "... by a gradual process of professionalization the VWML has become the most important concentration of material on traditional song, dance, and music in the country." It is named after Ralph Vaughan Williams, the composer, collector and past president of the EFDSS, who died in 1958.
The English Folk Dance and Song Society is an organisation that promotes English folk music and folk dance. EFDSS was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society. The EFDSS, a member-based organisation, was incorporated in 1935 and became a registered charity in 1963.
CDSS may refer to:
Bob Dalsemer is a square and contra dance writer and caller. He has called dances for more than 40 years and in more than 33 states, plus internationally in Canada, the Czech Republic, Britain, Belgium, Denmark and Russia. He wrote the book West Virginia Square Dances and Folk Dance Fun for Schools and Families. He has also compiled the cassette/book compilations Smoke On the Water: Square Dance Classics and When The Work's All Done: A Square Dance Party For Beginners and Old Hands.
"Country Gardens" is an old English folk tune traditionally used for Morris dancing. It was introduced by traditional folk musician William Kimber to Cecil Sharp near the beginning of the twentieth century, then popularised by a diverse range of musicians from Percy Grainger to Jimmie Rodgers.
Maud Karpeles OBE, was a British collector of folksongs and dance teacher.
Pinewoods Camp is a traditional dance and music camp located on 31 acres (13 ha) of woodland between Long Pond and Round Pond in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is the oldest continuously run folk dance camp in the U.S., and is arguably the most popular and well-known camp of its type.
The Vernacular Music Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, is a center for in-depth and comparative research, study, teaching and advocacy on behalf of the world's vernacular musics and dance. The Center was founded at Texas Tech in the Fall of 2000 under Executive Director Dr Christopher J Smith. The VMC states that it "engages with folk music, traditional music and dance from around the world: vernacular idioms that are learned, taught, shared, and passed-on by ear and in the memory." The term "vernacular" is employed in its title in order to allude to "vernacular languages"—those languages used for commonplace communication—and in order to avoid potentially limiting terms such as "folk," "traditional," or "non-Western."
Douglas Neil Kennedy (1893–1988) was a folk musician, dancer and a key figure in the 20th century English folk dance revival.
 | This article about a music organization is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This dance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |