Dayton, Ohio

MVFD Syllabus Collection
Reviews!

We think the MVFD Syllabus Collection is pretty wonderful. But you don't have to believe us. Here is what some other people have to say about it.

You and your many helpers have done a fantastic job on the CD-ROM! I am SO impressed! You have truly led the way into the future with this! Not everyone is a collector of written dance notes, but to those of us who are, this is just incredibly valuable. The art alone is collectible, and to have the entire contents searchable is amazing.
Thanks,
Sally Jenkins
Bartlesville, OK

I am really enjoying MVFD Syllabus CD. I got it on Thursday (the 10th) and have been looking at everyday since. I like the way your cd is set up. I collect syllabi and I upwards of 5500 folk dances, squares, contras and rounds. The dances in this collection will probably put it well over 6000. I hope more clubs or organizations decide to put their collections on CD.
Craig McFall
Beaverton, OR

Review by Ron Houston from the September, 2005, Report To Members of the Society of Folk Dance Historians
CD ROM REVIEW:
The MVFD Syllabus collection, edited by Leslie Hyll, and compiled through the collections and labors of many wonderful members of the Miami Valley Folk Dancers.
Friends, you gaze upon the future of folk dance documentation and archival enterprise. This little gem contains the complete contents of 77 Miami Valley Folk Dancers workshop syllabi from 1953 to 2004. The CD stores a digitized photo of every cover and page of every syllabus with the possible exception of the Jane Farwell workshop of 1961, for which they could find no syllabus and which may have been cancelled. The photos even appear in color where the original contained color.
Best of all, the CD contains a built-in search engine that can find virtually every occurrence of any word in the corpus. Type in "Vyts" to find every page the mentioned him. Type in "polka" to find that word every time a sylabus uses it.
In addition, the CD contains complete indexes of:
   the syllabi by year,
   the syllabi by instructor,
   the syllabi by emphasis (e.g., country), and
   a master dance list of the 1,100 dances described in those 77 syllabi and presented by 58 instructors.
Folk dancing long has been cursed by a lack of available materials, be they sound recordings, culture sessions, or dance descriptions. Notes from one source would supplement notes from another, yet no folk dancer had access to the different sources.
Now, EVERY folk dancer has access to the entire Miami Valley collection, from 1953 to 2004. If this could be done for other collections, how much easier research would be! BUY THIS CD, use it, study it, and encourage your local organizations to create their own legacy in a similar manner.

MVFD Pages: [Home] [General Schedule] [Info Sheet] [Calendar]
Other pages: [Hyll Home Page] [Dayton Dance Groups] [Directions to MSP]

MVFD Syllabus Collection Reviews!

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MVFD Syllabus Collection
Reviews!