Hi fellow Shared Weight dance musicians :) I'm very excited to announce a greatly expanded CDSS Resource Portal with brand new sections for dance musicians .... in addition to callers, song leaders, organizers, ritual dancers, and others! (Before reading further, please note that I'm 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!) Check out the Portal here: https://www.cdss.org/resources/resource-portal You likely would want to start with the 'Musicians' section. 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 dance musician topics, the Portal could especially use resources for teachers and other educators on how to teach dance music to school-aged participants... .... that's an area which is really lacking in the Portal. If you have follow-up questions for me regarding the portal, please email portal(a)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 dance musician, 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