Rita and Mal Hayden
Photo of Mal and Rita Hayden dressed in clothing to celebrate the American Bicentennial, 1976
Jim Mayo comments:
“He was calling when I first started dancing in 1947 and when I got out of college and moved back to New England he was calling regularly with his orchestra in Kingston, NH. He was the first/founding caller for the Seacoast Region SD Club which sponsored summer dancing at Hampton Beach for several decades. He did not make the transition to MWSD but was sort of a bridge between it and traditional because of a more-than-usual open mind.
“Mal is mentioned a lot in the early issues of the New England Caller magazine which started in August of 1950. At that time there wasn’t an identified distinction between modern and traditional square dance. The Seacoast club made the transition from traditional to modern and was well on the way there when Mal stopped calling in 1960 because it interfered with his work.”
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From Bob Brudage's interview with New Hampshire caller Joe Casey:
Joe Casey: I guess my first dancing other than Trails End was Seacoast Square Dance Assoc. which started up in 1949 with Mal Hayden as their caller. Probably one of the best traditional callers that we had. He was their host caller for the first ten years of their existence. He didn’t really want to make the switch to modern.
Bob Brundage – Right – I called for Seacoast many times.
JC – Yep, they used to have you, Charlie Baldwin, Abe Kanegson, and Joe Perkins of the North Shore.
BB – Back then they kind of screened the callers they had. They didn’t want to get into real hot shot world. They were gradually switching over to some of the western figures. They enjoyed the traditional at the same time.
JC – As a matter of fact at the same time, Mal use to include contras and we did folk dancing in between the squares before we had round dancing. ... But even though we made the switch from traditional to modern western we remained on good terms with the traditional people. They didn’t seem to resent the fact that I made the switch, people like Ralph Page, Mal Hayden we remained quite friendly with.
Subjects: Person
Tags: Mal Hayden, New Hampshire, Rita Hayden
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| Item: Mal Hayden - Seacoast Demonstration, 1960 | is related to | This Item |
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Jim Mayo comments:
“He was calling when I first started dancing in 1947 and when I got out of college and moved back to New England he was calling regularly with his orchestra in Kingston, NH. He was the first/founding caller for the Seacoast Region SD Club which sponsored summer dancing at Hampton Beach for several decades. He did not make the transition to MWSD but was sort of a bridge between it and traditional because of a more-than-usual open mind.
“Mal is mentioned a lot in the early issues of the New England Caller magazine which started in August of 1950. At that time there wasn’t an identified distinction between modern and traditional square dance. The Seacoast club made the transition from traditional to modern and was well on the way there when Mal stopped calling in 1960 because it interfered with his work.”
===
From Bob Brudage's interview with New Hampshire caller Joe Casey:
Joe Casey: I guess my first dancing other than Trails End was Seacoast Square Dance Assoc. which started up in 1949 with Mal Hayden as their caller. Probably one of the best traditional callers that we had. He was their host caller for the first ten years of their existence. He didn’t really want to make the switch to modern.
Bob Brundage – Right – I called for Seacoast many times.
JC – Yep, they used to have you, Charlie Baldwin, Abe Kanegson, and Joe Perkins of the North Shore.
BB – Back then they kind of screened the callers they had. They didn’t want to get into real hot shot world. They were gradually switching over to some of the western figures. They enjoyed the traditional at the same time.
JC – As a matter of fact at the same time, Mal use to include contras and we did folk dancing in between the squares before we had round dancing. ... But even though we made the switch from traditional to modern western we remained on good terms with the traditional people. They didn’t seem to resent the fact that I made the switch, people like Ralph Page, Mal Hayden we remained quite friendly with.