Line Dancing

Let’s face it, sometimes we all embrace our inner Kevin Bacon and have secret jam sessions alone in our room or in the garage and dance like no ones watching. In his case he used it to let off some steam. Good thing dancing isn’t illegal in this day and age or we wouldn’t have viral videos. The classic styles of line dancing include the oldies but goodies, mostly associated with genres of music such as pop rock, dance rock, and Western to name a few.

Most of you probably can’t stop yourself from tapping your feet and snapping your fingers whenever you hear the popular Kenny Logins song ‘Footloose’. Don’t worry you’re not in this alone. Who could forget the famous breakout dance scene of the modern version of the movie footloose ‘Sell me a fake ID.’ Except don’t take the song literally or you’ll have the Niagara Ad Service calling you asking you who you really are and what you were doing on the night you went to Big Texas.

American line dancing became popular as a result of the John Travolta films Saturday Night Fever in the 90’s. This film is very popular in this style of dance which uses the line dance ‘hustle’ and Urban Cowboy. It was also popularized by the country music one hit wonder Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus, which had a line dance created for it. Of course there are many different styles and workshops that have been put into work when it comes to line dancing history. Line dancing was actually first invented in the USA, some time in the late 1970s to early 1980s.  Disco music was the line dance source as much as to country and western was.

Some other examples of songs that are part of line dancing that aren’t necessarily country songs include the cupid shuffle and the electric slide. As long as it involves people standing in lines and performing dance movements together its considered line dancing. It consists of patterned foot movements that are usually performed to a number of counts per sequence, and then you must repeat the sequence. Some requirements include walls and the count.

The basic steps include crossing one foot over the other, the rock which is stepping with one foot and moving your weight onto it without taking it off the other foot, while going back and fourth. Then there’s also scuffing which involves stepping forward, scuffing the ground with your foot as you move it forward. To add more confusion to the dance, theres stomping and the grapevine which is a sideways movement to either side. Finally theres the weave, the pivot turn and the unwind. I bet you are confused and are imagining these movements in your head.  I won’t bore any more than I already have with explaining these movements. Just relax for a moment and feel free to watch this iconic scene with Julianne Hough and she will show you what I mean and try to keep up if you can!