Va. It's Saturday night, and Helen Bolling is shimmying in the corner booth of the Golden Pine restaurant. This is an especially daring act in Pound, a coal mining town of about 1,000 people 10 miles from the Kentucky state line.
Public dancing is illegal without a permit.
It imitates sexual contact.'' There are probably many localities in Virginia and elsewhere that have similar bans, but usually they're in antiquated sections of the legal code that have been ignored for decades, said Kent Willis, director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. So far, no one has been ticketed in Pound for dancing. But that could change soon. The police department and the town government have been talking about what to do with the Golden Pine and its owner, Bill Elam, who refuses to apply for a permit. Elam probably will get a court summons, said town attorney Gary Gilliam.