Community Squares - Ed Durlacher
Writing for Sets in Order, Ed Durlacher looks back at his successful program of outdoor dancing in New York City parks.
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The first evening was more or less a nightmare. ... From the hundred or so the first night it grew, as time went by, into thousands. In that one area as many as 600 sets have been counted on the floor at one time. The fact that the dances were curtailed for three years due to the war had no effect. When it was announced in 1944 that the dances would again take place the word spread like wild-fire. The following figures are my own. Park departments count per hour attendance and so are two-and-a-half times as much.
Over-all attendance for 1940, 6,000.
Over-all attendance for 1951, 276,000.
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In a sidebar, Durlacher lists six simple rules "covering community square dances whether it be for just teenagers or every age group."
Subjects: General - Dance and Culture, Northeast - general
Tags: Central Park, Community Dancing, Ed Durlacher, Teen
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Juvenile Delinquency and Square Dancing |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Square Dancing in the Park |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Ed Durlacher - Central Park Newsreel |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Ed Durlacher - Central Park, photos |
Citation
Dublin Core
Title
Description
Writing for Sets in Order, Ed Durlacher looks back at his successful program of outdoor dancing in New York City parks.
===
The first evening was more or less a nightmare. ... From the hundred or so the first night it grew, as time went by, into thousands. In that one area as many as 600 sets have been counted on the floor at one time. The fact that the dances were curtailed for three years due to the war had no effect. When it was announced in 1944 that the dances would again take place the word spread like wild-fire. The following figures are my own. Park departments count per hour attendance and so are two-and-a-half times as much.
Over-all attendance for 1940, 6,000.
Over-all attendance for 1951, 276,000.
===
In a sidebar, Durlacher lists six simple rules "covering community square dances whether it be for just teenagers or every age group."