ACU Swing Cats is holding their 20th Anniversary dance April 29 at the Elks Art Center in Downtown Abilene. 

Swing Cats was the first dance club on campus, chartered in 2003 after 25 students responded to an interest group meeting organized by Dr. Cole Bennett, founder and current on-campus sponsor. 

The 20’s style dance group was given permission to exist as a school-sponsored “performance group,” having to abide by the strict dancing rules on campus at the time. After nine years of not being able to hold a dance, ACU relaxed its dance policy on campus and Swing Cats was allowed to grow. 

“Swing Cats showed there is no big danger on letting people move to music,” Bennett, english professor and director of the Writing Center, said.

The dance will have a live jazz band, a Jack and Jill Dance and alumni to celebrate 20 years of Swing Cats. The current members of the group will host lessons an hour before the dance to teach anyone that wants to learn how to swing dance. They will be teaching 20’s Charleston and East Coast swing styles.

Swing Cats has had a lasting impact on Merry Sawyer, Swing Cats vice president. 

“Swing Cats has given me the most consistent friend group out of anything I’ve done,” Sawyer, senior communication disorders major from Oklahoma City, said.

Swing Cats has also had a lasting impression on Garrett Powell, President of Swing Cats. Powell said that this group has been his social club during his time at ACU.

“With Swing Cats, I learned to be more social. It helped me learn how to talk and dance in front of people,” Powell, senior computer science major from Fort Worth, said. 

To attend the dance, for non-members of Swing Cats, cost will be $1 at the door, up to however much you would like to donate to the club.