Square dancing, pickleball and archery — in Detroit?

Inside a gymnasium at the Adams Butzel Complex on Detroit’s westside, Lorraine Parrish aimed a bow and arrow. Her arm flexed as she focused on her target: a grid of nine squares about 10 yards away. She released, and the arrow pierced an X.

“I’m trying to get a tic-tac-toe,” Parrish said. “It’s a challenge. I like challenges.”

Four weeks ago, Parrish had never tried archery. Now, she attends a class every week for adults 60 years of age and over.

“This basically helps with their focus. It’s a low-impact workout. It’s a stress reliever too,” said Tenisha Edwards, an archery instructor and recreation program coordinator at the Adams Butzel Complex.

Archery is one of dozens of classes available at Detroit’s recreation and community centers , which the city has allocated about $7.74 million for operations from the general fund in its fiscal year 2024 budget .

The city said it has 11 open recreation centers, and more are on the horizon. It plans to open three new facilities soon. The city broke ground on the Chandler Park Fieldhouse on the eastside earlier this year. Construction on the Dexter-Elmhurst Recreation Center is slated to start in April. And construction of a new facility in Rouge Park is expected to begin later this year. Two facilities, the Coleman A. Young Recreation Center east of downtown and Joseph Walker Williams Center in the Virginia Park neighborhood, are currently under renovation.

At the city’s recreation centers, Detroit residents and nonresidents can ice skate, swim, use the sauna, lift weights, make jewelry, learn to write cursive, hula-hoop and more. Several dance classes are offered including sessions on hustling, Chicago steppin’ and ballroom. There’s even square dancing.

Detroit do-si-dos better

“Black folks don’t square dance,” Cecile Norde recalled saying to his wife Vivian Hughes Norde about 20 years ago when she asked if he wanted to try it out. But then he went with her and realized: “Yes, they do.”

The couple, both former Detroit school principals, are members of Dudes and Dolls, a local square dancing troupe that’s been do-si-do-ing with anyone who wants to join them at the Adams Butzel Complex since at least 2006.

On a recent Tuesday, a room at the center was filled with about a dozen people in their 60s or older, a few of them dressed in country western attire that included ruffled skirts and plaid shirts.

Vivian said she learned to square dance in a high school physical education class and found a sense of freedom in it.

“At that time, I was very young, and I didn’t have to have a date or anything to get out and learn how to dance,” she said.

Now in her 80s, she and her husband come from Canton to see friends and dance at the Detroit recreation center because “it’s great exercise, mentally and physically. And the older we get, the more we need this.”

In addition to square dancing, the class also includes lessons on line dancing and something called round dancing.

“Round dancing is like ballroom with instructions,” said Helen Hanna, a Dudes and Dolls member and round dancing instructor. “We’ll dance as couples around the perimeter of the room, and everybody is supposed to do exactly what I say. And then when we don’t, we smile, we laugh — but we keep moving.”

‘Pickle, what?’

Across town, at Kemeny Recreation Center in Southwest Detroit, Ronald Butler was one of about 10 people using paddles to hit a plastic ball with holes over a net. Butler said when some friends first asked him if he wanted to play pickleball, his response was, “Pickle, what?”

“Pickleball is a cross between tennis, badminton and table tennis,” explained Fred Procter, a former coach and athletics administrator who sometimes teaches the sport at Detroit recreation centers and elsewhere. He just came out to play on this particular night.

A lot of the participants said they enjoy playing the sport, but they’re also here for the camaraderie.

“I don’t like cardio, so this is my cardio during the week,” said Akshay Bhardwaj, a downtown resident, who showed up in his office attire. After changing into his athletic clothes, Bhardwaj realized he’d forgotten his gym shoes. Luckily, another player had an extra pair in his size.

“It’s a fun game to play,” Bhardwaj said. “You meet people from different backgrounds. There’s a good amount of diversity in pickleball players with regards to age and race, and it’s kind of fun to meet new people in the area.”

To attend a class like archery, square dancing or pickleball, attendees must sign up for a Detroit Parks and Recreation Community Pass . Annual memberships are available to residents and nonresidents.

Prices vary depending on residential status and age. According to the city’s website, a resident adult can purchase an annual membership for $10, and a nonresident adult can become a member for $20.

“I’m kind of blown away that for the price of a yearly membership, there’s so much to do in each facility,” said Cody Krieger, who drives in to play pickleball from Farmington Hills. “I’ve been to three or four different rec centers around the city, and (at) each one, staff is amazing, facilities are clean.”

‘Hidden gems’

With so many offerings in nearly a dozen centers across the city, it seems like the passes would be more popular. Only 12,646 Detroit residents — or about 2% of the population — had annual memberships on Feb. 23, according to the city. Additionally, 4,727 nonresidents had annual memberships on that date, which means people living outside of Detroit make up 27.2% of recreation pass holders.

“A lot of our rec centers are hidden gems,” said archery instructor Edwards. “A lot of people that live in the neighborhood don’t know that these rec centers exist.”

Ricardo Marble, assistant director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Division, said in terms of attendance, “I do think that we can do a better job, we always can. But I do think we have a very strong social media team that does a good job of advertising.”

The centers get a lot of participation from older adults and kids, Marble said, but there is a gap when it comes to recruiting high school students and young adults. As an effort to change that, the city is working to build six esports lounges in the near future.

“We’re going to have gaming consoles as well as gaming PCs set up in some of our rec centers to try to attract that age group,” Marble said.

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