Summer Institute, Asilomar, 1957

In As I See It, Bob Osgood devotes an entire chapter to Asilomar, a series of summer square dance institutes sponsored by Sets in Order magazine. Asilomar was a conference facility that Osgood had attended many years earlier and, he writes, "where I had first been bitten by the square dance bug."

"A square dance vacation institute would not be the first in the country, but it would be a new experience for us. We didn't have any guidelines to go by, but we knew that it was going to be important to have a good, well rounded faculty. Unlike Shaw's program where he was the only teacher, ours was going to be a staff situation with callers from different areas that could give a broad aspect of square dancing and round dancing. ...

"We wanted to focus on Western style square dancing—the type we advocated in the magazine— and we also wanted to fully integrate the smoothness of contra dances and the grace of round dances. Contra dances are a great way to introduce people to dancing. We selected dances that used the simple Western square dance moves, but we kept the traditional timing. Contra dancing also expanded our music selection by using Scottish and Irish reels, jigs, and hornpipes.Round dances were similar to ballroom dancing, but without the anxiety."

The first Asilomar institute was held in 1951. Among the people on staff for 1957 was caller Bob Ruff who with his wife Baba had set up a program for children in order to attract dancers with families. The final program at that location was held in 1990.