The Liberty Line Dance club was started by sophomore Ryan Hostetter during the 2024-2025 school year and has various instructors, including sophomore Quanetta Stoelting.
Hostetter, who grew up with line dancing, started the club 10 days into his first semester at Liberty University. While the group was still forming, he reached out to his sister hall to help spread the word on campus.
About 40 people came out for the club’s initial meeting on the first Sunday after classes began. After that first Sunday, Hostetter had several people reach out to him to ask if they could help lead the line dances.
“It’s been a bunch of super proactive students that have a passion for dancing and want to help make it as amazing as it possibly could be,” Hostetter said.
While creating the group here on campus, Hostetter thought about the club that his parents lead back home in Harrisonburg, Virginia. His goal with this new startup was to keep a family-friendly atmosphere for line dancing.
“Our goal is to create that family-friendly atmosphere that anyone can come enjoy and learn what it means and how it is to dance as David did, to dance for God,” Hostetter said. “We are honoring God and the activities we do here on earth.”
As the club has grown and garnered more attention attendance on some nights can reach over 90 people. This growth within the group does not hinder the personal community that gave rise to the club.
“I think line dance also lends to — like you can do dances big, but you can also do them small,” Hostetter said.
The Liberty Line Dance club also hosts theme nights to get its attendees involved. For example, they have previously had a Disney theme night and a partner night. For Stoelting, the Disney night was a standout theme.
“I personally really liked our Disney night … we just took a bunch of Disney songs, and we did … what’s called a song swap,” Stoelting said. “So, it’s like you have a line dance, but you find a song similar, like beats, tempo, and then you do it to that song. So, we did Disney night. We told everyone to bring their Disney gear, wear their Disney stuff, and then we did Disney songs.”
In years past, the club has also hosted an end-of-year party centered around line dance.
The club members will sometimes spontaneously host an impromptu line dance session, not typically hosted by the club leaders.
The leaders and club members do their best to make everyone feel welcome and to make sure they don’t feel pressured to know the dances ahead of time.
“So many times we get people that are like, ‘I don’t know how to dance. I’m not going to come,’” Stoelting said. “You don’t have to know how to dance. I’m not going to lie, when I first came, I didn’t know what I was doing at all. And look at me now. Like, there is so much growth in it, but just the fact that … you’re coming to have fun. There are so many people that will come and they won’t dance, but they’ll just stand to the side and … talk to people.”
To learn more about Liberty’s Line Dance club, visit their Instagram page @libertylinedance.
Ganoe is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion.