By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

The dance floor at Silverado Dance Club isn’t very busy on a Sunday afternoon.

In fact, the only two people on it — Kelly Bennett and Gary Hobson — are only dancing to demonstrate the Texas two-step.

Then they decide to show off some of their fancier moves. Hobson spins Bennett in circles across the dance floor until she has to stop.

“He’ll do that to me,” she says, laughing as they return to their seats. “That turn will make you dizzy.”

For about two months now, Bennett and Hobson have been Silverado’s self-appointed dance instructors, volunteering their time on Tuesday nights to work one-on-one with patrons who want to learn to dance. On those nights, they are joined by about 15 others interested in practicing their moves.

The dance club plays primarily country music, so country-western dancing is typically the most popular choice. But Bennett, who at some point wants to learn salsa and belly dancing, said she’ll eagerly tackle any dance.

“You name it, we do it,” she said. “If we don’t know it, we’ll learn it. Whoever takes the time to come through the door, we find out what they want to learn and teach them.”

Bennett said she started the lessons at the request of some Silverado regulars who wanted to learn to dance. Having been taught herself by Hobson, she recruited him to help.

Hobson, 57, said he started dancing eight or nine years ago by taking lessons twice a week. In three months, he had mastered the Texas two-step and moved on to the double two-step. He still takes lessons today.

Dancing is now so ingrained in Hobson’s being that he sometimes finds himself dreaming up a new turn in his sleep, he said.

“In dancing, you listen to the beat of the music,” he said. “You put your footwork to the beat and modify it. It’s an interpretation of the music.”

Bennett, 38, said she has no formal dance training and has only been dancing for about a year and a half.

She said she was at first too embarrassed to get on the dance floor without knowing how to dance. With a friend’s help, she started working on basic moves in her living room.

She then asked Hobson for lessons and gives him much of the credit for her dance moves.

“Gary pretty much taught me to dance out here in the middle of everything,” she said.

Because of her own initial insecurities, Bennett understands the fear some have toward dancing, particularly if they think they aren’t very good at it.

“The hardest step is stepping out there,” she said, gesturing toward the dance floor. “If (the dancers) are comfortable, we turn the lights on. If not, we keep them dim.”

Hobson and Bennett said they both enjoy dancing so much that they frequent Silverado several times a week.

“When I’m not working and my kids aren’t home, I’m here,” Bennett said.

In fact, she went to a 9 p.m. movie last weekend with a group including her teenage daughter and one of her daughter’s friends. When the teens decided that they wanted to go to the mall for about an hour before the movie, Bennett took advantage of that time to stop by Silverado.

“I came running up here, got to squeeze in a couple of dances,” she said.

To Bennett and Hobson, dancing is about taking the steps and making them your own, all while having fun.

“That’s the most important word — fun,” Hobson said. “The best part is to see a smile, and you know they’re happy.”

Billy Kuykendall, who owns Silverado, said he thinks the Tuesday night dance lessons are a great idea.

“Between Gary and Kelly, they do a great job, and it makes people happy,” he said. “They’re having a great time.”

Kuykendall, who admits he’d rather watch the dancers than dance himself, said he also thinks the lessons show his patrons that he appreciates their business.

“It’s good rapport you build with your customers, to do something for them without charging them,” Kuykendall said.

Back on the dance floor, Bennett and Hobson are demonstrating another dance, though they differ on what it’s called. To Bennett, it’s called a shuffle. Hobson calls it a Texas double two-step.

But their footwork is perfectly in sync as they move in circles across the floor — until Bennett, caught up in the lyrics of John Michael Montgomery’s “Sold,” which is playing on the sound system, takes a wrong turn.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says to Hobson. “I was singing. I can’t talk and dance at the same time.”

They reposition themselves and keep dancing.



Free lessons

Hobson and Bennett give free dance lessons from 6:30 to about 10 p.m. on Tuesday nights at Silverado Dance Club, 615 S. Tyler Ave. in Joplin.