The gymnasium at the Pocono Woodland Lakes Community Center smells like coffee and floor polish. On a crisp Saturday evening in November, 74 people ranging from age 9 to 82 are arranged in square formations, waiting for the caller's cue. When the music starts—an unexpected mashup of fiddle loops and a Dua Lipa bassline—the room erupts into synchronized chaos: allemande left, promenade right, do-si-do your corner.
This is "Square Roots," a twice-monthly square dance event that has transformed from a modest experiment into one of the most crowded regular gatherings in this unincorporated community of roughly 4,200 residents, tucked into Monroe County between Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock townships. Since its March 2024 launch, attendance has jumped from 12 curious locals to standing-room-only crowds.
The Spark
The revival has a single, unlikely origin story: a Facebook post and a pandemic-fueled case of cabin fever.
Mike Deluca, a 34-year-old IT technician who moved to Pocono Woodland Lakes in 2019, had never square danced in his life. But after months of remote work isolation, he found himself watching old dance clips at 2 a.m. and wondering if anyone nearby wanted to try something deliberately, unapologetically social.
"I posted in the Pocono Woodland Lakes Residents group asking if there was any square dancing around here," Deluca said. "Crickets. So I thought, what if I just started one?"
He rented the community center's gym for $45, convinced a bluegrass guitarist friend to DJ, and spent a weekend learning calling basics from YouTube. Twelve people showed up to that first event. By June, the Monroe County Arts Council had awarded Deluca a $2,400 micro-grant to formalize the program and hire a professional caller.
Then vs. Now
Square dancing was never a dominant cultural force in Pocono Woodland Lakes specifically. Unlike parts of Appalachia or the Midwest where the tradition runs generations deep, this community—developed largely as a second-home and retirement destination beginning in the 1970s—lacked a sustained square dance scene. Occasional church socials and camp activities featured rudimentary versions, but nothing organized persisted.
That absence, Deluca and participants say, may have been an advantage.
"We didn't have to fight against people's memories of dusty, obligatory gym-class square dancing," said caller Jenna Marchetti, who drives from Stroudsburg for each event. "We could build something from scratch that actually reflected who's here now."
What distinguishes the current iteration is its deliberate looseness. Marchetti calls traditional figures but the music rotates through four 30-minute sets: classic bluegrass, Top 40 remixes, Latin pop, and "wildcard" genres chosen by attendee vote. A November session featured reggaeton. December's wildcard vote selected K-pop.
Themed nights have become particularly effective draws. October's "Haunted Hoedown" sold out 96 tickets in four hours. February will bring a "Valentine's Mixer" designed for solo attendees to be paired on arrival.
Who's Showing Up
The demographic breakdown defies easy categorization. Deluca's informal surveys estimate roughly 40% of attendees are under 35, 35% are between 35 and 60, and 25% are over 60. First-timers typically comprise one-third of each night's crowd.
Elaine Voss, 68, a retired nurse from nearby Tobyhanna, heard about Square Roots from her granddaughter and attended her first session in July.
"At 68, I thought my dancing days were over," Voss said. "Now I'm here every week. My knees complain less than when I started, and I've got a social calendar again."
On the opposite end of the experience spectrum, 22-year-old Jada Okonkwo, a pharmacy tech who grew up in the Poconos, came to her first event in September after seeing TikTok videos from Square Roots.
"I literally thought square dancing was just for, like, old Western movies," Okonkwo said. "But they played Bad Bunny and I was like, okay, I'm actually learning something and not embarrassing myself. The caller explains everything. You can't really mess it up because everyone's figuring it out together."
That structured informality is intentional. Each Square Roots evening begins with a 20-minute "walk-through" where Marchetti teaches the four or five figures that will appear during the night. No prior experience, partner, or specific footwear is required.
Beyond the Dance Floor
The social effects have spilled outside the gymnasium. A Square Roots group chat on WhatsApp now has 214 members. Attendees have organized hiking trips, a book club, and a rotating dinner series. Two
