Fellowship, fitness, and mostly fun await couples who join the Fredericksburg Dance Club, the only such club that continues holding regular dances now at Turner Hall in Fredericksburg. Photo by Phil Houseal
Details:
The Fredericksburg Dance Club is open to everyone. Eight dances featuring live bands held every year at Turner Hall. Dances run 8 - 11:30 p.m.
To join, send $48 per person to:
Robert Pape, 4149 North US Highway 87, Fredericksburg TX 78624. For information, call 830-997 4538 or visit www.fredericksburgdanceclub.com.
Guests are welcome to attend individual dances for $10. BYOB and snacks. Turner Hall sells beer and setups.
2011 Schedule
Feb 5 - Almost Patsy Cline
April 2 - Country Dutchmen
May 7 - Troubadours
June 4 - Almost Patsy Cline
Sept 10 - Dave Laughlin
Oct 8 - Country Dutchmen
Nov 12 - Troubadours
Dec 3 - Almost Patsy Cline
| Do you have a musical artist, event, or topic you would like featured in this column? I love to hear from readers. Send comments to: phil@ fullhouseproductions.net. To be included in the free listing of live music events, send details to: Articles published weekly in the Permission granted to reproduce articles and photos with credit to: |
You can always dance
by Phil Houseal
Dec 29, 2010
Psssst. If you haven’t made your New Year’s resolutions yet, here is something fun and healthy to do, and the best bargain in town.
Hint: It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it. (Although their version is “it’s good music and the best dance floor in Texas.”)
“It” is the Fredericksburg Dance Club, the last and only dancing club left in town, and maybe the entire area.
It was only a generation ago that the county was home to at least five active dance clubs. As those groups dissolved, the passionate dancers consolidated and formed the Fredericksburg Dance Club about 20 years ago. Now the directors are concerned that even that club may go the way of knutsch bands and Nimitz beer.
In 2011 they are looking for more members to lead out the next generation of two-steppers and put-your-little-footers.
Time was, the local dance halls were the center of social life. Three generations of every family would gather on a Saturday night to dance, gossip, and share snacks. These days, the generations need regenerating. As one director put it, “We are looking for younger members... desperately... because we are getting older!”
When asked the average age, they laugh and say “probably the late 60s” but their spirit and energy are much younger.
They still do the Herr Schmidt, Cotton-Eyed Joe, and Schottische. Some admit they can’t cut the rug like they used to, but they still come to enjoy the music, fellowship, and to watch the other couples spin around the oak dance floor.
Dances are usually held the first Saturdays of each month, skipping only the first day of hunting season, Oktoberfest, and the summer months (“We used to not have air conditioning so we don’t have dances in the summer.”)
The cost? Just $48 per person.
You won’t find a better entertainment bargain. At less than 50 bucks for the entire year, membership includes admission to all eight dances, each featuring a live band.
This lack of interest is perplexing. I know from my work in community education that the most popular classes everywhere, always, are country western dance instruction. Folks clamor to learn the two-step and waltz, yet traditional dance clubs and dance halls are often half empty on a Saturday night.
Director Mike Goldsen - who is from Alabama - brings an outsider’s perspective.
“You don’t see this anywhere else,” Goldsen said. “It is so unique to this area, this culture. When there are 250 people at an event and you know three-quarters of them, it is very special.”
Club members and guests make the best sales pitches...
“I joined and pay the dues, knowing good and well I won’t be at every dance,” said Andrew Tatsch. “But I pay dues to keep the thing going because this is the only place you can go and do this.”
Jan Wigginton enjoys it, even while sitting. “It’s lots of fun and family oriented.” I asked her why she was not dancing? She laughed. “I’m old and my knee hurts.”
Jewel Wierich is there, “because I grew up here and my parents came here all the time.”
Locals Eldon and Helen Feller belong. “We come here for the fellowship,” said Eldon. “We dance, we bring all this good food, and we enjoy good friends.”
Margaret Priess grew up dancing. “We like the good wood floor. I’ve been sick so I can’t get as rowdy as we used to, but we can still listen!”
Edgar Priess comes for fellowship, fun, and fitness. “It’s good fellowship, and I like to dance once in a while. It’s good exercise, dancing.”
“There’s so few of these dance halls still around,” Goldsen said. “It is so inexpensive, what you spend for more than three hours of music and entertainment. This is a dying art - you just don’t see it anymore. We need to keep the dances going.”