The Little T Squares welcomed dancers from across East Tennessee on Friday night at the War Memorial Building in Lenoir City for a night of square dancing and fun.

Dancers wore patriotic colors and danced the night away to celebrate Independence Day.

“This is a great way for us to come together and honor our freedom in this country,” Carol Tiernan, Little T Squares member, said. “There are lot of people here that are dressed in red, white and blue. Some women have on patriotic skirts and men have on patriotic vests. It’s just a really fun time for all of us.”


A square dancing club, the Little T Squares is the largest of its kind in Tennessee.

“We’ve been in Lenoir City for 43 years now,” Maggie Burton, Little T Squares president, said. “It’s crazy because we’ve also been dancing in the same War Memorial Building for those 43 years. We take a lot of pride in being the largest square dancing club in the entire state of Tennessee.”

People from all over the region are part of the group, with many residing in Tellico Village.

“We have a lot of people that come up from the Knoxville area or other parts of East Tennessee,” Burton said. “In addition, we have a lot that come from Tellico Village. I mean, we have people that come in as far south as Athens or far west as Crossville. We’ve even had people come down from Kentucky. There’s a lot of interest surrounding our organization and what we do.”

The club specializes in a form of modern western square dancing where dancers are aligned in a square of eight people. A caller strings together a sequence of moves that form a certain figure within the square.

“The caller pretty much tells us what to do,” Burton said. “This is a pretty big deal, but we’re the only club in the United States that gets more national callers than they do their own callers. Typically, we get 15 to 18 nationally known callers a year.”

The club also dances to other forms, including a variation of ballroom dancing.

“Between the time of the two dances, we have a time called Tips,” Burton said. “We’ll have something called round dancing, which is something my husband and I do. It’s ballroom dancing, but they chew — they tell you what to do, so you don’t have to think about it. It’s kind of interesting because we’ll also have line dancing for people that like to do that.”

Hugh and Becky Moore brought their square dancing experience with them when they joined the club, moving from New York to Tellico Village.

“We’ve been square dancing here for eight years and we square danced back in New York for six years,” Becky said. “There was a 20-year gap in there for us. We lost our babysitter and Hugh had hurt his back and we just got out of it. So, I told him that whenever we retired, we were going to start square dancing again and we did just that once we moved down here.”

For Herb and Toni Hinsch, square dancing is a much newer experience.

“We’ve been square dancing for only about two years now,” Herb said. “We took the class and we enjoyed doing that. This past year, with the new class, we volunteered to be helpers and we helped with the state convention.”

While all members enjoy dancing, the friendships matter most. The club’s motto is “friendship through dance.”

“We love to square dance for several reasons,” Burton said. “One, it’s a wonderful form of exercise and it’s the only form of exercise that you can do that actually builds brain cells. I also just love that you get to interact with so many friendly people. We’ve made a lot of friends just through this club alone.”

The next dance will be 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 20, and will feature a baseball theme. Admission is $6 at the door.

“The people you meet are amazing,” Herb Hinsch said. “The people you meet here are just very warm and kind, even when you don’t really even know what you’re doing out there. All of us fail and when we do, we all just laugh and move on. Nobody is critical and we’re in it together.”

For more information about the Little T Squares, contact Maggie Burton at 865-617-1267 or visit www.littletsquares.com.