Participants at the Little Switzerland square dance show off their best moves on the dance floor in Geneva Hall on Saturday, July 10. The square dance will be held every Saturday night in July and August from 8 to 11 p.m. Frank Brown is the dance caller. (MNJ photo/Ariana Maniatis)
Dancers of all ages and skill levels will try their hand at square dancing in Geneva Hall this summer as a square dance will be in the facility every Saturday in July and August from 8 to 11 p.m.
Frank Brown, the event caller, invites locals and tourists to come and experience the mountain tradition. Square dancing in Little Switzerland has its origins in the area’s community center in the 1920s, he recalled.
“We think that this is the oldest continually operated square dance in North Carolina,” Brown said. “We emphasize the old mountain-style square dancing.
“Back in the day, when this place was being settled, it was settled by extended families. They would all come together and do their work and they might have a drink or two and have a party and play music.”
The square dance event maintains the local traditions of music, food and dance.
“Everything we are doing here is Scotch-Irish and English music,” Brown said. “You transmit your culture through music and dance. They are playing songs here tonight that were played during the revolution.”
Brown began as square dance caller as a boy and has kept it up since more than two decades later.
“I’ll do it until I get too old,” Brown said. “I do the calls exactly like they did when I grew up.”
The event also features a cakewalk where anyone can buy tickets for a dollar to be entered into a raffle for the chance to win homemade pies and cakes.
Families looking for good, clean weekend fun can do a lot worse, Brown said.
“It’s very family-friendly,” Brown said. “The money that we make goes back into this building and we do not allow alcohol here.”