Dance studio hosts New Year’s Eve square dance party

MARQUETTE — If your idea of a fun night out involves square dancing, there’s a New Year’s Eve activity for you in Marquette.

The Dance Zone holds a pot luck dinner and square dance at the Jacobetti Home for Veterans every New Year’s Eve. It’s aimed at residents who already have some familiarity with square dancing, but some of the veterans who live there always stop in.

“They don’t take part, but they do come and watch, visit, have some snacks with us,” Dance Zone co-owner Marge Sklar said. “They’re not square dancers, and it’s usually the guys in wheelchairs that come along. Pot luck dinners (with a square dance) have been going on for New Year’s Eve (in Marquette) for at least 15 years, maybe 30.”

Sklar says square dancing can easily become a lifelong hobby because it engages the brain as well as the body.

“It’s been written up in the New England Journal of Medicine as having a 75% probability of delaying things like Alzheimer’s and other dementia,” she said.

The event costs $10 per couple. Dinner starts at 6:00 tomorrow night. The dance begins at 7:00 and usually lasts until about 9:30, leaving plenty of time for other New Year’s activities.