Belfast Flying Shoes is an affiliate member of the Country Dance & Song Society, and the below message from CDSS seems relevant to all of us at Belfast Flying Shoes. We are, each of us, grouping together and working in harmony by dancing on first Fridays, playing in the BFS All-Comers Band or at the contras, and participating in BFS outreach efforts (contra dance residencies in local schools and youth orgs, Tues night contras, etc). Below is the complete CDSS post.
Today, More Than Ever, I Believe That Dance, Music & Song Build Community!
Today, more than ever, I believe that dance, music and song build community. I know you do too and that is why you are part of the CDSS family. Building community through dance, music and song is what CDSS does best. It is what YOU do best! Today, I wanted to reach out to each and every one of you to share what I deeply believe.
I deeply believe in the transformative power of participatory arts. We are the best ones to build and rebuild the social safety nets and social contracts of our communities to include everyone. Even before this country was founded, community-based organizations took care of the community before there were institutions to do so. In 1840, Alexis de Tocqueville noted how we did this, “Americans group together to hold fêtes, found seminaries, build inns, construct churches, distribute books, dispatch missionaries to the antipodes. They establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method. Finally, if they wish to highlight a truth or develop an opinion by the encouragement of a great example, they form an association.”
(Tocqueville, 1840).
On March 23, 1915 this association of ours was founded. All of you have made CDSS what it is today. Our arts have the capacity to bring people together. We know this and we have witnessed this. It is what we do and will do for our next 100 years.
A young adult leader in our community posted an excerpt of the lyrics of a beloved song from camp, Here is My Home by Si Kahn and John McCutcheon, on the CDSS Week at Buffalo Gap/Timber Ridge social media page this morning. Thank you, Cecily Mills for inspiration this morning!
Come darkness, come light
Where are we bound?
Come morning, come light
Here is my home
For those who work in harmony,
Where are we bound?
Can learn to live in unity;
Here is my home
Come darkness, come light
Where are we bound?
Come morning, come light
Here is my home
I urge us all to lift our voices in song, pick up the pick or the bow, take hands four or merely hold the hand of the person next to you to guide them down the hall. Together let’s build community!
With gratitude in dance, music and song,
Rima Dael