Along with squeaking shoes and clopping boots, the Ram Country Dance Club provides a community space for anyone to pick up the art of swing or line dancing.

At 6 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, students make their way to Allison Hall at Colorado State University wearing heavy cowboy boots and shiny belt buckles as they prepare for the club meeting.

“They always make sure that you can always see the specific dance moves or the next steps or instructors, so it’s very inclusive,” first-year Isabella Boccia said. “They always try to make sure you’re heard and seen.”

Even though Boccia had never done country dancing before, a friend urged her to give it a try.

“I would just say it’s just one more thing to make me feel like I have something here at CSU,” Boccia said. “Especially as a freshman, just trying to find people to hang out with and find people and find things to do and just getting the most of my time. This is definitely just like a step into, like, that development.”

“Dance has always been part of my life, specifically choreography and storytelling through dance. I think line dance really clicked for me because it was choreography, and just choreography done over and over and over again so I picked it up real fast, and I just loved it.” –Nani Tomich, Ram Country Dance Club president

Along with group lessons, the club also provides one-on-one workshops for those interested in competitive dance.

Boccia is not the only beginner, as there’s an estimated attendance of around 100 people per meeting. There is a mix ranging from those who’ve never country danced before to experts who’ve been boot scootin’ their whole lives.

Ram Country Dance Club co-founder and President Nani Tomich said that has been a purpose of the club since its conception.

“The original intention of starting this club was to create a place that was interested in welcoming to everyone, and that entails both people that wouldn’t necessarily be welcomed into the country Western community but also people that (would) not necessarily … consider themselves to be dancers,” Tomich said.

Tomich has been a dancer since she was 2 1/2 years old, learning hula growing up in Hawaii. But coming to Fort Collins, she was introduced to line dancing by friends who encouraged her to join them at Sundance Steakhouse & Saloon, a recently closed local dance bar.

“Dance has always been part of my life, specifically choreography and storytelling through dance,” Tomich said. “I think line dance really clicked for me because it was choreography and just choreography done over and over and over again, so I picked it up real fast, and I just loved it.”

Although Sundance closed down, there are plans for a new venue, Chutes Dance Hall, set to open Oct. 26, but they will have a soft launch Oct. 23.

After seeing a niche for this kind of space on campus, Tomich and several others decided to start a club. Their first meeting was hosted in the lobby of Aggie Village Apartments and had around 20 attendees, Tomich said.

Lorenzo Espino, an instructor for the club, joined the club after watching them dance at Aggie Village.

“I thought country swing dancing was really cool, and I wanted to learn how to, but I never really had an opportunity to go and pay for a lesson,” Espino said. “We pride ourselves in creating a really fun environment, and we’re really hard on ourselves in light of the fact that we want everybody to have fun.”

Ella Powell also started as a beginner before achieving instructor status this past semester. Powell was told about the club and the community by a previous instructor who attended the same youth group.

“That was just something I was looking for — just great community and being able to try out new skills,” Powell said. “I made so many amazing friends through it.”

While the club started off small, it had some help from the country dancing community, including Sundance when they were still in operation and the nonprofit Country KickUp based in Greeley, Colorado.

Tomich credits the University of Wyoming Cowboy Country Swing Club as an inspiration for how they run the club. The two clubs have made several collaborations together, including a Border War dance competition.

Tomich also credits the founding and operation of the club to the other leaders, who collaborated to make the club what it is.

“This club has a founding team of people,” Tomich said. “Being a leader on this team is basically a part-time, unpaid job, and the heart and soul that all of these leaders put into this space is incredible. I’m very, very grateful for all the people involved and all the people in this community.”

Some upcoming club events include an anniversary celebration and parent night Oct. 23 at Chutes Dance Hall, a fundraiser to cover club expenses at 6 p.m. Oct. 25 at Mash Lab Brewing in Windsor, a student tailgate before the football game Oct. 26 and plans for a winter formal.

Reach Bear Atwood at life@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.