At 7:15 p.m. on a Thursday, Jim Davenport lifts a battered microphone and calls out, "Allemande left!" Forty feet hit the maple floorboards of the Roanoke City Recreation Center on Franklin Road in near-unison. The sound—boot heels, sneakers, and one pair of neon-green running shoes—has echoed through this gym since 1987.
This is modern Western square dancing, Roanoke style, and it operates with the precision of a small-town machine. Four couples form a square. A caller directs them through patterns they know by muscle memory. There is no freestyle, no spotlight, no competition. When the sequence ends, partners thank each other, the squares dissolve, and everyone finds new corners. The choreography resets. The community holds.
What Square Dancing Looks Like Here
Roanoke City's scene is rooted in modern Western square dancing, the postwar style standardized across the United States and distinguished by its tiered lesson system and professional callers. Davenport, 71, has been calling here for thirty-one years. He learned from his father, who called in Pulaski County, and he still drives to national conventions to learn new compositions.
But the local flavor is unmistakable. The Roanoke Valley Square Dance Club, which organizes the Thursday dances, blends strict Western style with regional hospitality. Dancers range from teenagers in the club's junior program to retirees who have attended through three presidential administrations. The music is country and pop, played at precisely 124 beats per minute. The dress code is relaxed—some dancers wear traditional petticoats and bolo ties, others arrive in khakis and polo shirts.
"We're not preserving a museum piece," says club president Donna Eller, 58. "We're keeping a living thing going."
The People Who Keep It Moving
Margaret Chen, 67, started dancing in 2019, six months after her husband died. She had seen a flyer at the Williamson Road Library advertising free beginner lessons and attended on a whim.
"I came for the exercise," Chen says, adjusting her square-dance name badge between tips. "I stayed for the people who remembered my name."
Now Chen coordinates the club's newcomer program, which runs every September through March. Beginners learn seventy-one standardized calls, enough to dance at most clubs nationwide. The course costs forty dollars, which includes a handbook and a student badge. By the time they graduate, most students have danced with every regular in the room.
Eller points to another square, where Mike and Sandra Tolbert, both 74, are dancing with a pair of college students from Hollins University. The Tolberts met at this same recreation center in 1982. They have missed, by their count, fewer than fifty Thursday nights in four decades.
"You don't have to bring a partner," Sandra Tolbert says. "You don't have to be graceful. You just have to be willing to listen and move."
Where and When to Find It
The Roanoke Valley Square Dance Club's calendar runs year-round, with intensity that peaks in autumn. Beyond the weekly dances, the club's signature event is the Star City Hoedown, held each October at the farmers market pavilion in downtown Roanoke. The 2024 hoedown drew twenty-two squares—176 dancers—from Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Davenport called from a temporary stage beneath the pavilion's metal roof. A local barbecue vendor sold sandwiches until 10 p.m.
Smaller events fill the gaps: a New Year's Eve dance at the Vinton War Memorial, a spring picnic at Explore Park, and occasional demonstrations at the Roanoke City Market during National Square Dance Month in September.
Why It Still Matters
The physical benefits are real—square dancing burns roughly 300 calories per hour and has been linked to improved cognitive function in older adults—but regulars rarely mention health first. They talk about the structure. In an era of fragmented social life, square dancing enforces proximity. You must touch hands. You must make eye contact. You must cooperate with seven other people to finish a figure.
There is also the matter of lineage. Davenport's son, Thomas, began calling in 2019 and now leads the junior program. Several current dancers are grandchildren of founders who organized the club's first dance in 1971.
"This isn't about nostalgia," Thomas Davenport says. "It's about knowing that if you show up on Thursday, someone will ask you to dance."
How to Join
The Roanoke Valley Square Dance Club welcomes visitors at its weekly dances, though newcomers are encouraged to start with the structured beginner course. No partner or special clothing is required. Comfortable shoes with non-marking soles are recommended.
- Weekly dances: Thursdays, 7:30–10:00 p.m., Roanoke City Recreation Center, 215 Luck Avenue Southwest
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