Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor
Kelly Kneeshaw graduated from Queensbury High School in 1982 and met New Englander Dan Albro that summer when he was playing in a rock and roll band at the now vanished Lake George bar Sky Harbor.
It’s bringing them back to Lake George next weekend — May 19-20. The Albros will present a Country Line & Partner Dance Weekend at Wild West Ranch just south of Lake George Village. It’s expected to draw 300 dancers from here and the Northeast and Canada.
“I think we have about 285 so far that pre purchased tickets,” said Dan, when The Chronicle interviewed the Albros two weeks ago. “We’re trying to get everyone to purchase them ahead because I want to make sure we have the right seating and the right number for the caterer for the people that are there for the barbecue. So we’re going to cap it at 300.”
In its 32nd year, the Albros’ Mishnock Barn “has 3 large floating dance floors. Dang near 3,000 square feet of foot stompin! hardwood floor,” its website proclaims. “Dan and Kelly Albro invite you for a Line Dancin’, Two Steppin’, Foot Stompin’, Good Time.”
“We have been blessed,” Dan said. “If you told me when I was in a rock band that I was going to be a line dance instructor-choreographer and go all over the world teaching — my father said, ‘Hey, if you get 10 years out of it, you’d be doing something.’”
“The club is busier now than it’s ever been,” says Dan. “We’re five nights a week. And there’ll be a couple hundred people in here, probably 600 700 people every weekend.”
The Albros produce dance weekends in the Catskills and do the Quebec rodeo called Festival Western de Sainte-Tite, about two hours northeast of Montreal. “They’ll do 600,000 people [in the week],” Dan said. “They have a 10,000 seat rodeo that Coors Light sponsors.”
When I say I’m embarrassed to admit I never heard of it, Kelly said, “Neither did we, until they invited us.”
Dan says, “We were in France two weeks ago, back in France, Germany and Belgium in June.”
Kelly’s father Jim Kneeshaw — a long-time local educator, member of the Lake George Park Commission and numerous other involvements — passed away last December at the age of 87. Jim’s long-time companion was the now retired State Senator Betty Little.
Kelly said her mom Fran Adams Sherman “passed in May of 20. She was a kindergarten teacher in Bolton Landing and Queenbury for a few years.”
The Albros have been married in 1990, although that took time.
“My boyfriend introduced us actually at the time,” Kelly says.
“Yeah,” says Dan, “I was married to the lead singer” in the band.
Dan says he and Kelly didn’t get serious “until, well, after my divorce.”
“I never thought I’d be choreographing dances or teaching,” Dan says. “I just had the club and kind of fell into it. I was always in bands, so being on microphone wasn’t a big deal.
“My mother was a country singer on a piano and in a country band and they played around quite a bit, the tri-state area for the most part. That was my introduction to country music — with her.
“In the choreography, that stuff started going international through YouTube, and there were magazines back in the day — Line Dancer magazine out of England. They started publishing my dances. We were in Europe, probably 10 times a year teaching.”
If line dancing still on the grow? “Oh, my God. Yeah,” Dan replies. “We have a lot of young people.” He said their minimum age is 18 (with a valid photo ID). “So it’s 18 to 80 most days.”
The dance barn features a bar, but Dan says, “It’s not a drinking crowd. The dancers know how to drink responsibly, which is one of the benefits of it.
“Even when we go to Europe, the dances are the same type of person — we know how to have fun, but we also know how to be responsible adults, you know?”
Dan says, “We had success because we paid attention to the dancers and not necessarily the drink. A lot of people that tried this in the early 90s, they would think Oh, the bar [biz] is going to be huge.
“And then when they found out that, hey, wait a minute, these country line dancers don’t drink a lot, a lot of them [got out] because that’s how they knew how to make money. Right?
“I actually welcome the fact that I don’t have to babysit these adults.
“And we just found ways and products that they would buy. We started selling Arizona iced tea, and that became a big product and water. And a steady cover ($10), so you find ways to make money with the crowd that we like.”
Dan says the basics are “to make sure they have space on the dance floor and a spot to put their drink.”
He says, “Early on, it took maybe four or five months before it really started to show signs that this thing could work. And then the weekend nights was slamming, because back then we were the only club that was doing it full time.
“Some churches had line dancing going on and some Elks clubs did it during the week, but nobody on the weekend. So it built up pretty quickly.
“Where we really took off was when I started teaching and then I realized that the people that know the basic dances don’t want to sit there and watch me teach for 45 minutes. They want to get their heart rate up, they want to be on the dance floor. So we ended up taking — I had a back area 30 by 30, that had pool tables in it — and I took that out and built a dance floor there….
“On our website [www.mishnockbarn.com] there’s a YouTube video that kind of shows somebody walking through the door. And you see the beginners on the beginner floor, and then the island bar, and then the other two dance floors.
“They’re dancing to different music. It’s one big open space, it’s separated by the island bar, but it worked.”
Beyond next weekend’s event at the Wild West Ranch, the Albros have another Lake George ambition — revive the Shepard Park Jam in which his band performed. “We’re actually trying to recreate that.”
Dan says the rock bands he played in were Sundance and Radio Star. He’s back performing in Sundance, playing out like one weekend a month. Kelly says she’s not musical but all five of their sons are.
Copyright © 2023 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved
