Country Dance & Song Society

Resources by Topic

This section includes a wide range of resources organized by topic.

If you want to learn even more, look at the Resources by Topic pages for callers, singers, dance musicians, and ritual dancers. They contain how-to information for a broader audience with a fair bit being useful for the classroom setting.

The CDSS Online Store also carries a wide range of resources of interest to educators. View those resources here. Depending on your interests, you may also be interested in the other sections of the store.

Repertoire

This section of the Portal contains links to many dances, songs, and tunes specifically collected for use with school-aged participants.

As a reminder, look at the…

• Families section for videos and other resources for families with children
• Song section for additional songs
• Musician section for additional dance tunes
• Caller section for additional social dances
• Ritual dance section for additional ritual dances

Also - The CDSS Online Store carries a wide range of resources of interest to educators. View those resources here. Depending on your interests, you may also be interested in the other sections of the store.

Online Discussions

Do you want to connect with educators involved in traditional dance, music and song? Then check out the following online groups. You can ask questions and get immediate responses from individuals throughout North America and beyond. These online communities are full of supportive people who share similar interests with you.

You can also join other online discussions for callers, dance musicians, singers, and ritual dancers. While these lists aren’t specific to teachers/educators, there are teachers on most of the lists and teaching in schools comes up occasionally in the discussions. These lists love having new members including folks with little to no experience. So join, listen in on the conversation, and start asking questions!

In-Person Gatherings

There are a number of in-person networking and learning opportunities for educators. These types of events are a great way to be inspired, gain answers to questions you may have, and learn about new techniques that you might want to try.

Check out some of the gatherings below and also check the listings of caller, musician, song, ritual dance, and organizer gatherings to find specific events for those communities - which you can join!

If you have an event to add, please email portal@cdss.org. Please note - events that are listed here need to to have a regional or national scope and include some level of training for educators.  If you have a more local event, you can submit it to our events calendar.

And - Consider organizing your own learning/networking opportunity for educators interested in traditional dance, music and/or song! The dance organizers section of the Portal has some tips if you want to see how they tend to connect.

CDSS offers grants for weekend workshops and more. Grants are usually between $250-$500. Get in touch with us at resources@cdss.org if you have an idea that needs a little financial support to make into a reality.

Other Resources

This section contains even more resources that may be of interest to teachers and educators.

Share your resources: Do you have a resource you think should be shared on The Portal? Fill out this easy form to let us know about it!

Dance It Yourself

Download the Dance It Yourself Teacher's Guide (1.4 MB PDF)

Dance It Yourself, the CDSS multigenerational dance video series, is our response to dancing at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Are you a teacher or a homeschool parent, looking for resources to share with your students? Would you like them to be able to dance and sing at home, under your supervision? Would you like someone else to do all the teaching and explaining of the dances for you? You've come to the right place!

This series of six videos will be released throughout the next several months. We hope that you and your students will be able to share the love of traditional dance and music, even through the Zoom screen!

The Dance it Yourself series features well-known traditional dance callers, musicians, and a wide variety of dance styles, all of which can be done solo or in a couple.

Dances are demonstrated for you and your students dancing both singly and in pairs. All dances are done in small spaces, showing you how it can be done in your own homes.

Dance along with us—and dance it yourself!

What Music Teachers Are Saying

• “The CDSS Dance It Yourself video series is fabulous! I'll be using it to teach on-line Kodály training courses this summer. The classroom applications for post-COVID are immeasurable. Please keep making more!”

  –Georgia A. Newlin, DMA

• “During this difficult time of COVID, it is so inspiring to see CDSS continuing their mission. So happy to be a member of CDSS and seeing a collaborative effort of musicians, callers, and dancers working together to offer these amazing opportunities. The joy I felt from watching the father and son dancing together warmed my heart. With the ongoing work of CDSS, I remain hopeful that dancing will happen soon.”

  –Amy Krafchick

• “Thank you for your work on this! The absence of folk dance in my classroom is as bad as the absence of singing. This will help so much!”

  –Nina Kindt Wilson

• “Thank you (Robbin L Marcus!) I find sharing a dance video where someone else teaches is the perfect breather I need to get through my online classes. Also evens the playing field when I have virtual and in-person students together.”

  –L.D.

• “Thank you SO much!!! What a gift to our profession.”

  –E.G.

• “How wonderful! This will definitely fill a need. It inspires me to do some of my own virtual folk dance videos, too!”

  –Tracy Doty Ward

• “I'm watching the videos and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!”

  –David Macemon