ESP Biography



CLARK BAKER, Square Dance Caller




Major: EE&CS

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 1976

Picture of Clark Baker

Brief Biographical Sketch:

My training at MIT is in EE&CS, mostly helping people design integrated circuit chips and verify their designs. Along the way I got interested in square dancing, learned to do the square dance calling part, and now I enjoy teaching and calling.

Square dancing has a variety of "levels" and I mainly teach and call at the beginner end, and at the very complex end (C3 and C4).

When I am not dancing, I also enjoy playing Euro-style board games.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

X4784: Square Dancing 101 in HSSP Summer 2011 (Jul. 10, 2011)
Modern Western Square Dancing is a form of group cooperative dance. The dancers have been taught a vocabulary of movements (calls) and a leader (the caller) puts these movements together in an unpredictable, ever-changing pattern in real time. The dancers don't know which call comes next and yet are able to respond to create a smooth, ever changing pattern of movement. This class will start with no assumed knowledge of dancing (square or otherwise) and teach a vocabulary of 68 calls. In square dancing, the basic step and rhythm are simple making it a good first dance form. The challenge comes in remembering the calls from the previous sessions, and learning more each week. The fun is working with the other 7 dancers in your square, moving with the music, responding to the calls, and having everything "click".