Note: This article is a work of creative local lifestyle writing. Lawson City, Arkansas, and the schools described below are fictional, presented here as a sample of place-based community journalism.
Every Saturday night for as long as most folks can remember, the old community hall on Main Street has filled with the shuffle of boots, the bright saw of a fiddle, and the ringing call of a dance caller cutting through the laughter. In Lawson City, Arkansas—a tight-knit Ozark community of just under 4,000, tucked between rolling hills about forty miles north of Fort Smith—square dancing isn't a novelty. It's the social fabric.
Whether you grew up do-si-do-ing at church socials or you've never once heard an allemande left called out across a wooden floor, Lawson City's dance schools welcome all comers. Below are three studios keeping the tradition alive, each with its own philosophy, schedule, and sense of community.
Lawson City Dance Academy: The All-Rounder
Address: 214 E. Maple Street, downtown Lawson City
Phone: (479) 555-0142
Website: lawsoncitydance.com
Best for: Families, multi-style dancers, and traditionalists who want options
Founded in 2001 by former Fort Smith Ballet dancer Margaret "Maggie" Tolliver, Lawson City Dance Academy sits in a converted 1920s mercantile building with original pine floors and tall, street-facing windows. The academy runs square dance classes every Tuesday and Thursday evening, but its real distinction is breadth: students can pair their square dance training with clogging, ballroom, or even introductory contra dance.
"We get a lot of parents who drop their kids off for ballet and end up staying for the adult square dance class," says Tolliver, now 67, who still teaches the advanced square dance session on Thursdays. "The floor has a little give to it. Your knees will thank you."
Need to know: Beginner square dance runs 6:00–7:30 p.m. Tuesdays. Drop-ins are $15; a ten-class pass is $120. Ages 10 and up. The academy hosts a free community dance on the first Friday of each month, open to the public with live calling from regional caller Jed Blackwell.
Rhythm & Roots Dance Studio: Old Steps, New Energy
Address: 89 Industrial Park Road, Lawson City
Phone: (479) 555-0298
Website: rhythmandrootslawson.com
Best for: Younger dancers, couples, and anyone curious about fusion styles
If Lawson City Dance Academy honors tradition, Rhythm & Roots deliberately stretches it. Opened in 2015 by husband-and-wife team Derek and Amara Vance—he's a hip-hop instructor, she's a fourth-generation square dancer—the studio has built a following for what it calls "progressive square dance."
Their signature "Square + Groove" class keeps the standard formations and live calling but layers in body percussion, syncopated footwork, and even brief freestyle breaks. The result looks nothing like your grandparents' dance hall footage, yet the core vocabulary—promenade, swing your partner, right and left grand—remains intact.
"We're not trying to replace anything," Amara Vance says. "We're asking what happens when a sixteen-year-old who's been watching TikTok dance videos walks into a square. Can they see themselves here? We think yes."
Need to know: "Square + Groove" meets Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. Classes are $18 each, with a monthly unlimited pass for $65. The studio skews young adult but offers a family session Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. No partner required.
The Square Dance Emporium: For the Purist
Address: 405 Old County Road, Lawson City
Phone: (479) 555-0311
Website: squaredanceemporium.com
Best for: Serious students, history buffs, and dancers seeking deep immersion
The Square Dance Emporium makes no apologies for its narrow focus. Housed in a former grange hall five minutes outside downtown, the school teaches square dance and only square dance, with a curriculum designed to preserve the regional "Southern Mountain" style that flourished in western Arkansas through the mid-twentieth century.
Instructor and founder Roy P. Castellanos, 74, learned to call from his uncle in 1964 and has taught in Lawson City since 1989. His classes emphasize live calling, acoustic music (fiddle, guitar, and banjo), and the specific figures
