The Last Dance

Local dance club closes after 19 years. By Jani Gonzalez. Photo Courtesy of Bob Crossman

Last month, a little piece of local history closed its doors. After 19 years as a dance club for country western and line dancing, Crossroads in Post Falls had its last dance.

Bob Crossman closed the club after losing his wife, Pat, in June to an illness.

“When Pat died, she was wife, my best friend, my business partner, my dance partner, and it was all gone in one day,” he said.

Back in 1995, the couple had planned to relocate from the Midwest to Post Falls to retire. They had always enjoyed dancing; Bob had even been an instructor for a time after high school. Pat had an epiphany about line dancing when she visited the dance club known as Kelly’s at the time.

“[It] was the honky tonk place. She said, ‘you’ve got to come see this – they play the music and everyone starts dancing the same thing,’” Bob said.

Once they moved, they danced regularly at various clubs, and people started to ask for lessons. One night after traveling to teach a lesson, Bob hit a patch of black ice over the Fourth of July Pass.

“After I spun and got control, I said, ‘let’s have them come to us.’ And that’s how this came about,” he said.

Crossroads was named for its location at the intersection with 16 and 41. But the name also marks the moment in Bob’s and Pat’s lives when they retired. They weren’t retired for long because the business soon took over. They taught every type of dancing, from Latin, swing, the two-step, and country line dancing. They also catered and held weddings.

“Country music is kind of a misnomer because we dance to ‘50s, ’60s, hip-hop, Latin – any kind of music. Every time there is a new song, a new [line] dance comes out. It’s just been amazingly fun,” he said.

Pat also made sure that Crossroads was a place to socialize without the drinking or smoking. Through the years, 18 couples met and got married at Crossroads; many more couples married there too.

“Pat’s favorite expression was that ‘you can’t find a stallion in a donkey bar.’ Without the drinking here, people are more honest,” Bob said.

Many students signed up for lessons after passing by the club.

“Pat always said that we’d created some monsters. Some of these people were shy but became very good. Dancing gave them a lot of self-confidence,” Bob said.

Denise Donahue, a regular of Post Falls, had driven by for years and finally signed up for lessons last year.

“I’ll miss it terribly,” she said, as she watched Bob show some regulars the first dance of the night – “Rock Your Body” by the Phonekers. “It’s not just about dancing – it’s about the people.”

Kellee Gibbs, another regular, hopes to follow in Bob and Pat’s path. She and her boyfriend bought some of the Crossman’s equipment. They want to teach dancing and eventually rent a place of their own.

“It’s sad to lose Crossroads,” she said. “It’s all our fears that this will be erased.”

As more people entered, Bob called out in greeting or went to hug them.

“It’s really been a fun life,” he said.

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