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FOOTLOOSE

Cove square dance club celebrates 45 years
By LYNETTE SOWELL 
Cove Leader-Press
 
The Copperas Cove Public Library’s meeting room was filled with the sounds of toe-tapping music Friday evening as the Double C’s square dance club celebrated its 45th anniversary.
 
The Copperas Cove-based square dance club is part of a larger network of square dance clubs in Central Texas and draws a regular crowd from the local area every Friday evening.
 
Club president Marjorie Mitchell said the dances and lessons are family oriented. Multiple generations, with children as young as six to dancers in their nineties, participate in the dances.
 
Club members Mary and Ron Wesche moved to the Copperas Cove area a little more than nine years ago from upstate New York, where the two were avid square dancers. They brought their love of dance with them to Texas and immediately searched for a local group to dance with, Mary said. The couple has been dancing for more than four decades.
 
“In fact, my husband and I met at a square dance in 1967,” Mary added, and dancing has been a part of their lives ever since. The pair have taught both square and round dance, with Ron being a regular caller for the Double C’s in the past. Their daughter, son, daughter-in-law and grandson also take part in the family tradition at the square dance nights.
 
Guest caller for Friday evening’s event was Brad Caldwell, who came all the way from Sun City near Georgetown to call the night’s dances, said Marjorie Mitchell.
 
In addition to the square dances, those who loved dancing in general had the chance to take to the floor in round dances and line dances.
 
Many people typically equate square dancing music with the sound of fiddles and other country-sounding instruments, but on Friday night Caldwell played Maroon 5’s song “Moves Like Jagger” and called a square dance to that tune.
 
This past Friday evening’s celebration drew square dancers from Gatesville, Killeen, Georgetown, as well as Bruceville-Eddy and Burnet to Copperas Cove.
 
graduate another class,” said Double C president Marjorie Mitchell. The club currently has around 18 members, but Mitchell said they hope to gain at least six more members after this class session completes their training.
 
Aiken Wesche, 12, said he enjoys coming out with his family to dance, to include his grandparents, father, aunt and stepmother.
 
“I really like it; it’s fun,” said Wesche, who unabashedly took to the dance floor with nonagenarian Sis Coleman.
 
Coleman said not only does square dancing offer a chance for exercise, but she’d heard that those who dance outlive those who don’t by 10 years at least. Although a tailbone injury slowed Coleman down for a bit last year, she was ready to take a turn or two around the dance floor at Friday night’s celebration. The celebration included cake along with door prizes donated by club members.
 
The club was started in 1971 by Ray and Catherine Stewart.
 
The Double C’s offer square dance lessons every Tuesday evening and hold open dance sessions on Friday nights. Weekly lessons and dances begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Copperas Cove Public Library (access at rear entrance). For more information about the Double C’s, call Marjorie Mitchell at 254-547-2054 or go to www.hotsrda.org.

 

Copperas Cove Leader Press

2210 U.S. 190
Copperas Cove, TX 76522
Phone:(254) 547-4207