Savannah Wiseman, a senior at WSC majoring in biology, specializing in pre-physician’s assistant, took up a hobby of swing/line dancing a few years ago and fell in love with everything about it.

“We meet on Wednesdays. Lessons start at 8 p.m. and dancing is from 9-11 p.m. We always meet at the basketball courts over by the volleyball nets and we use whichever court is open,” said Wiseman.

“Swing/line dancing use to be a club here on campus but last year, with Covid, we couldn’t do anything because there were too many restrictions,” said Wiseman.

Despite not having this club for a year, that did not stop her, “Swing dancing is something I’ve found I really enjoyed doing. It’s something I’ve met friends through, so I took it upon myself to make a Facebook page and invite people from all classes,” Wiseman said.

To find the Facebook page, search Wayne Country Swing/Line Dancing group.

Autumn Badeer, a senior studying criminal justice, often attended the line dancing group pre-covid. “On a normal week, there were around 15-25 attendees. Some people would stay for the whole night and some would just come for an hour or so,” said Badeer.

“I mostly wanted to join the club to spend time with my friends while learning something new. It was really nice to take a break from homework and go dancing for a few hours,” said Badeer.

Students enjoy learning to line dance while spending time with friends and meeting new ones. “If we get more people wanting to learn how to dance, I’m willing to open another day up to teach students!” said Wiseman.

“I made friends through this club, and I also brought new friends to it for something fun to do together. I enjoyed meeting people at this club that I normally wouldn’t get to meet, such as other students with different majors than mine,” said Badeer.

“Everyone at the club was patient and willing to teach me the dance if I needed help. I noticed this club helped me become a lot more comfortable with line dancing, so when I attended barn dances with Cru, I felt prepared,” said Badeer.

“I learned how to swing dance after line dancing,” Wiseman said. “[A lot of the] time, people are intimidated by swing dancing because they don’t have a partner or boyfriends to dance with, so I bring my boyfriends and do a couple dances to teach them,” said Wiseman.

“Some songs and dances we do when we meet on Wednesday are line dances [such as] Fishing in the Dark and Boots Scoot. Then there are the songs that already have their own dance to it such as Footloose,” said Wiseman.

“I hoped to learn several new dances and become comfortable looking ridiculous while trying to learn them! It was nice learning with other people in a fun and safe environment,” said Badeer.