29 Days Until Trek - Dancing Schools in Winter Quarters

Many Latter-day Saint pioneers loved to dance. It was a fun diversion from the demands of trail life. Few are born knowing how to dance. We all need to learn as some point. Part of our Trek activity will be a hoedown. But don't be worried. Before Trek, we are going to have a fun activity where you'll be able to learn how to square dance and be able to practice. Like the pioneers, you might just discover that a fun dance at the end of a long day is quite fun.

“Dancing schools were organized at Winter Quarters in the winter of 1846-47 to give more people a chance to learn those cotillions and Virginia reels. Richard Ballantyne, a young convert from Scotland, described a school conducted across the river at Council Bluffs: ‘To keep up the desponding spirits of the Saints, and to prevent as many as possible from being discouraged, President Young gave encouragement to dancing. As many did not know how, dancing schools were established. The cheering music and social pleasure found in this exhilarating exercise did much to comfort the Saints and to dispel their gloom. This, I believe, was the beginning of that dancing, which ever since, has been one of the favorite past times in the Church.’”

Selection from Stanley B. and Violet T. Kimball's 2011 book, Villages on Wheels: A Social History of the Gathering to Zion.