COUNTRY SWINGERS: DANCE CLUB OFFERS DIFFERNT TWIST FOR COUNTRY MUSIC LOVERS

There was a time when people dressed up on Saturday nights in brightly colored cotton dresses, western jeans and shirts, and cowboy boots, and headed for their favorite honky-tonk for a fun evening of dancing to country western music.

The music may have come from a juke box, or perhaps a live country western band. The dance floor, more often than not, was wooden. But no one seemed to mind. It was the music and dancing they came for.

Over the years, time took its toll. The honky-tonks closed, or did away with the dance floors, leaving nothing but the juke box and band.

Today, however, country western dancing is making a comeback, thanks to The Nashville Network, a growing number of young enthusiasts, and older adults who remember dancing the way it used to be.

Nowhere is that more apparent than with the Country Club Western Dancers of Cape Girardeau County. The organization was officially created Oct. 24, when it received its non-profit incorporation charter from the state of Missouri.

The organization actually held its first meeting Oct. 14, with over 55 people attending. Since then, as word of the club has spread, attendance has grown.

Club members meet each Monday at 7 p.m., at the Jackson Knights of Columbus Hall on North Highway 61, near the Jackson city limits.

According to its statement of purpose, the Country Club Western Dancers Inc. was organized to: "Perpetuate classic country western dancing, and through various activities, including, but not limited to dances and meetings, to encourage the growth in the quantity and quality of country western dancers and provide an environment that promotes camaraderie, friendship, encouragement and an opportunity to increase the dancing skills of its members."

Bruce Watkins, club vice president, says he and seven other people, who had been dancing in the local bars for the past three years, formed the club.

The founders are: Jack and Vicky Clay, Tim and Mary Pensel, Mike and Theresa Maraman, and Margaret Hargraves and Watkins.

"There's nothing wrong with bars, but we had to move to four different bars in a 15-month period because the ones we used, closed," said Watkins.

Another problem with dancing in local bars was the lack of control over the type of music that was played. "For about an hour, they would let us play country western music, until the live rock band started to play," he said.

Watkins said it was difficult enough to find places that still had a dance floor, but it was nearly impossible to find a location where inexperienced dancers could be instructed in country western dancing.

For those who have never heard of, or perhaps, forgotten what country western dancing is all about, here's a brief history.

Country western dancing traces its roots back to the early pioneers who danced to the fiddle around the campfires of encamped wagon trains.

The tradition continued with the Saturday night barn dances, especially in the southwestern United States, particularly Texas, where country western dancing was immortalized by the "western swing" music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and Spade Cooley and his band.

As the '50s, '60s, and '70s rock and roll music overshadowed other forms of dance music, including ballroom dancing, country western dancing nearly died out, except in its home state of Texas and the Southwest.

In the '70s and '80s, the growth of cable television enabled country western dancing to win new popularity. It has continued to grow in popularity, thanks to the Nashville Network, and its "Club Dance," seen daily.

Margaret Hargraves, one of the original members of the club and its choreographer, says country western dancing is not the same as square dancing. "Square dancing is done by a caller, and involves more than one couple in squares and set patterns," she explained. "Country western dancing involves a couple dancing together with other couples in an unstructured pattern."

Hargraves said she and her husband started out doing ballroom dancing, which she says, is about the same as country western dancing except there are different names for the same dance routines. And, instead of formal wear, couples usually come in western shirts and jeans, or western pleasure suits and cowboy hats. The ladies sometimes wear the traditional, brightly colored western-style dresses.

"The thing we like about country western dancing is that we get to hold one another," said Hargraves, a fact that did not escape the attention of her daughter, who also enjoys country western dancing.

Watkins said country western dancing has evolved from the western swing to a wide variety of dance routines. "It has gotten so refined that now they have what they call "East Coast" and "West Coast" swing, in addition to the traditional Western Swing," he said. Other country western dance routines include the two-step, shuffles, waltzes, and line dances.

Hargraves said the original members learned western dancing from another local club, The High Cotton Dancers, and from workshop videotapes. Now, they want to teach others the fun of country western dancing.

"The Country Club Western Dancers Inc. is an allvolunteer club. None of its officers, board members or instructors receive any pay for their duties," said its president, Mike Maraman. "We invite anyone who would enjoy or would like to learn country western dancing to come to one of our meetings."