History timeline - square dance and CALLERLAB

At the annual CALLERLAB convention, in April 2025, caller Clark Baker was asked to lead a workshop on the history of square dance and of CALLERLAB. Clark has been calling nearly 50 years, mostly at the Challenge program (though also with a group of Boston area middle school students each year), served on the CALLERLAB definitions committee, and appears on the SDHP site in a series of interviews.

At his session, Clark presented a timeline of different events, a portion of which is included here with his permission. Two accompanying graphs illustrate the rise and subsequent decline of participants in the square dancing activity.