AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Dance halls are having a resurgence in some parts of the West. The community gathering places have long been a staple for people living in isolated areas. Hanna Merzbach of Mountain West News Bureau takes us to a family square dance night just off of Wyoming Highway.
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COURTNEY CAPLAN: All join hands and circle to the left.
HANNA MERZBACH, BYLINE: Square dance caller Courtney Caplan's (ph) pigtail braids bounce as she calls out the moves, and people ages 8 through 80 join hands.
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CAPLAN: Now back to the right, if it takes all night.
MERZBACH: Musicians playing a variety of string instruments cram in shoulder to shoulder on a small stage.
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CAPLAN: Now into the center with a great big shout.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Whoo.
MERZBACH: We're at the Kearney Community Hall. The decades-old dance hall is in the ranching community of Banner in the northeast part of Wyoming.
CAPLAN: You know, I used to drive by this hall, and for years, it had been sort of abandoned.
MERZBACH: Until in 2010, she cut the lock off the door with bolt cutters. She and other musicians wanted a venue to play in and knew there was a big oak floor here.
CAPLAN: And I knew it was a great floor for dancing, and that was reason enough to save the building.
MERZBACH: From there, Caplan and others formed a nonprofit, which came to own the building. They fundraised one pie auction at a time to replace the leaky ceiling, broken windows and holey floor. They officially opened the doors in 2017. Now twinkling lights hang from the wooden ceiling beams and colorful quilts cover the walls. Here's Caplan's partner in crime, Scott Gall.
SCOTT GALL: You know, you see these kids. They're not running around with their phone in their hand. The big kids are helping the little kids dance. It's pretty cool.
CAPLAN: OK. So it's not politics. It's not religion. The saying is square dancing is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. It's just like, good, clean community fun.
MERZBACH: Good, clean fun. That's a phrase I heard a lot at the square dance night. But it wasn't always so clean. Old-timers here say people used to party until daylight back in the '60s and '70s. And the same was true across the West.
CHIP SCHWEIGER: To sort of shake off the dust of the week.
MERZBACH: American West writer Chip Schweiger from Texas has what he calls a cowboy mustache that's so thick, it hides his upper lip. He recently wrote about dance halls. He says near the turn of the 20th century, they were social infrastructure, places to share the news and meet future spouses.
SCHWEIGER: We talk about the West being beautiful because it's vast, but that vastness also creates isolation. And so what the dance halls did was created a sense of community.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Whoo.
MERZBACH: That's the goal at new or renovated dance halls in Idaho Falls, Kingston Canyon, Utah, and the Texas Hill Country. And here in another Wyoming town, Cody. It's on the edge of Yellowstone National Park. In mid-April, a group of locals reopened the doors at Cassie's Steakhouse & Saloon to a crowd of people eager to dance. It's long been an institution for Western dancing.
MIKE JONES: Under the dance floor, actually, is hollow because that's where they were making booze and moonshine during the Prohibition.
MERZBACH: Co-owner Mike Jones says Cassie's started as a brothel in the early 1900s, but it's the music and dancing that stuck out to him growing up.
JONES: I remember walking in those big front doors because the parking lot was full, so I had my mom drop me off at the gas station across the street. The band's off to the right, having a good time on the old stage. This place is packed.
MERZBACH: That's the feeling Jones says he's been chasing since Cassie's shut down a few years back.
JONES: Where it's nice and quiet on the outside, you can kind of hear the music, and you open the doors, and it's just a whole new world is in there.
MERZBACH: The trick at keeping these community centers open is finding people to carry on the legacy. At the Kearney Hall in Banner, that's the nonprofit's next mission since the board members are getting older. But they have some contenders, like 9-year-old Emerson (ph), who's playing the fiddle on stage.
EMERSON: Sometimes I'm nervous, but sometimes I'm not 'cause I know that it brings people joy.
MERZBACH: Or there's Brooke Holzemer (ph), age 20, who's learning to call the moves.
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BROOKE HOLZEMER: Eight move forward, and six move back. Now rotate right.
MERZBACH: She says this dance hall is one of the reasons she doesn't want to leave the community.
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HOLZEMER: Good job, guys.
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MERZBACH: For NPR News, I'm Hanna Merzbach in Banner, Wyoming. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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