"Composers Workshop and Dance Band" from the "1949 Franciscan" yearbook (page 52)

Photographic spread of San Francisco State College's Composers Workshop and Dance Band where students could compose and perform their own music under the faculty supervision of Music professor Wendell Otey. Students lobbied for opportunities to learn and perform dance music. Student activist Bob Searle established Dance Band in 1947. Divided into so sections, those of performance and orchestration, this was a vocational education initiative to provide actual practice and background and not only theoretical experience. Students only arrange compositions from modified "bop" to modern symphonic style were used by the Dance Band, and arrangers conducted their own selections (1949 Franciscan, page 52). Dance Band participants presented their annual concert on May 23, 1949.