The Agricultural and Environmental Science club is teaching dance classes on Saturdays and Mondays at 7:30 p.m. The goal of the lessons is to generate interest in the barn dance put on by the Ag club in November. The entire ACU campus is invited to participate in this fundraiser for the Ag club.

Kathleen Henderson, vice president of the Ag club is excited about bringing in new students.

“In order to get more people to come we decided to do these dance lessons,”said Henderson, senior environmental science range and wildlife management major from Rockport.

The lessons are focused on all forms of country western-style dancing.

“We want a place that is friendly and open for people who want to learn,” said Jamie Elswood, senior criminal justice major from San Antonio and member of the Ag club.

If turnouts at the lessons get too large, there are plans to have a different group meet each day, or add another meeting to the normal meetings on Saturdays and Mondays.

The Ag club has attempted to offer country western dance lessons in the past, but ran into obstacles with the old ACU dance policy.

“We couldn’t ever get it going because the ACU policy was a no-dance, ‘make room for Jesus’ kind of thing,” said Ian Merriman, senior criminal justice major from Hickory Creek and member of the Ag club. Now that the dance policy has been changed, the Ag club is free to give these lessons on campus.

The Ag club also meets most Friday nights at 7:30 p.m. at the Oplin Community Center. This allows members to practice their moves in another public, but friendly environment.

“Oplin is a good place to learn anyway,” said Elswood.

Every skill level is welcome to join in the lessons.

“On average we have one or two people who have never danced at all at every lesson,” said Merriman.

The Ag club is hoping to have fun while generating awareness for the barn dance coming in November. Interested students can attend either the Saturday lesson in Studio B of the rec center, or the Monday lesson in Studio A.