Hi fellow Shared Weight Contra Callers,

I'm very excited to announce a greatly expanded CDSS Resource Portal with brand new sections for callers and educators .... in addition to dance musicians, song leaders, organizers, and others!

(Before reading further, please note that I'm highly biased as I've been heavily involved with this project.)

The goal of the CDSS Resource Portal it to support you and others who take on valuable leadership roles in traditional dance, music and song communities. The Portal does this by linking to many of the very best resources available for callers, educators, organizers, singers, ritual dancers, educators, dance musicians, and more. There are hundreds of resources organized by topic as well as links on how to connect with others online or at in-person gatherings. (We initially launched the Resource Portal in Fall 2019 but it's only housed organizer resources up until now!)

You might be most interested in both the callers and the educators sections.

The Portal is only a great as the resources that are shared by the community! We are looking to add even more resources and we really appreciate resources created by members of our network (including you!).  If you know of resources that should be added, please suggest them here: https://www.cdss.org/share-your-resource

Relating the topics discussed on our contra callers list, the Portal could especially use resources for teachers and other educators on how to teach dance to school-aged participants. If you have material that can be shared online, please reach out through the form above.

If you have follow-up questions for me regarding the portal, please email portal@cdss.org rather than the listserv.  Note that I likely won't be able to respond for a few weeks but do look forward to touching base.  

Also - if you are an organizer as well as a caller, you may want to join CDSS's free quarterly e-blast for organizers.  
-> Check out the latest issue sent out today: https://conta.cc/2uRunBM.  
->If you would like to receive future Shop Talks, you can sign up here: https://www.cdss.org/programs/cdss-news-publications/shop-talk 

AND - if you are excited about either the Portal or Shop Talk, please share the news with your friends!

Thanks,
Emily Addison
writing from Ottawa, Ontario