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NGI Recipient: Ewan Swanson

Session Attended: CDS Boston Centre - July 4th weekend (2021)

In 2020 I missed out on a large amount of the normal activities I do each year. This camp session was my first at Pinewoods, but also my first since the beginning of COVID. After so long without dancing, it was strange being so close to people where I had been distanced from others for the past year. J4 was able to extend my knowledge of folk dancing in many ways that I was not expecting it to. For the past ten years I have been doing contra dancing, which I started at the CDSS Ogontz week, and for the past six years I have been doing morris dancing. I was well versed in each of these before camp, but I now know more about these dance types than I ever imagined I would. Receiving the NGI scholarship was a way for me to experience Pinewoods and learn more about folk dance without fully indulging myself in the camp, which, given my experience this year I plan to do in the future. Thank you for granting me the scholarship and this opportunity.