January Square Dance / Augusta Heritage Center

Join us for a Square Dance on Friday, January 8 with a 7:30 p.m. workshop and an 8:00 p.m. Gerry Milnes & Friends will be playing music with Mary Alice Milnes calling square dances. Held in the Pit Dance Studio in the Myles Center for the Arts. The dance is beginner and family-friendly. No dance partner required.Tickets at the door are $6 for adults and $4 for AmeriCorps Members / students. Free to D&E faculty, staff and students with ID.

Gerry Milnes served as the Folk Arts Coordinator for Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins College for 25 years, retiring in 2013. Milnes is known for his vast repertoire of tunes unique to West Virginia and he always enjoys playing for a square dance. He was awarded the Vandalia Award from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, the West Virginia Governor’s Art Award and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts Degree from Davis & Elkins College.

“Gerry Milnes is one of the best old-time dance fiddlers I know,” says Becky Hill, coordinator of The Mountain Dance Trail. “He loves to square dance and that comes out in his music as he plays for dancers.”

Brittany Hicks, assistant director of Augusta, says, “Mary Alice Milnes knows lots of traditional West Virginia figures. She is especially skilled at teaching beginning dancers and making everyone feel welcome on the dance floor.”

The dance is part of The Mountain Dance Trail, a heritage tourism project of Augusta Heritage Center of Davis & Elkins, which hosts a square dance almost every weekend in the heart of West Virginia. The Mountain Dance Trail 2016 schedule with square dances across the Mountain State is now available online and in our brochure.

To learn more, visit www.mountaindancetrail.org or call the Augusta Heritage Center at 304-637-1209.