LINE DANCE WEEK
Put on your dancing shoes; it’s Line Dance week! Observed each year beginning on the second Monday in September and ending on Saturday, Line Dance Week celebrates foot stomping, smooth sliding steps of line dancing enthusiasts.
Line dancing has a somewhat tainted and misunderstood backstory. Early versions of line dancing might have been brought over by immigrants in the 1800s. Some also argue African folk dancing, a popular dance among slaves, is another possible influence of early line dancing in the U.S. There is also a possibility that line dancing began on the western frontier when cowboys combined traditional dancing with other means to avoid dancing with each other. However, line dancing first made its popular debut in the U.S. during the late 1970s on the disco scene with the Electric Slide. In the early 1980s, country line dancing was following suit with the Boot Scootin’ Boogie. Most notably, Billy Ray Cyrus’s Achy Breaky Heart not only took country music by storm, but it also brought the popularity of line dancing to the forefront.
Back to the Basics
A basic line dance consists of a group of people in a line or row who perform dance steps in a repeated sequence. As participants line up in rows, dancers execute the same dance step movements simultaneously. Standing side by side, foot movements of each dancer are repeated in a synchronized manner throughout the entire song. There is no touching between dancers when line dancing unless you run into your neighbor! Many sub-cultures have their own unique versions of what we now call line dancing. The modern country line dance evolved from folk and cowboy dances. Disco line dances arose from the African-American dance traditions that developed with the rise of jazz and the blues. The type of line dance performance is unique to the location of the music. As music evolves, so do line dancing styles.
HOW TO OBSERVE
There are plenty of resources available to aspiring line dancers of all levels. Books and DVD lessons are available everywhere, but the best way to learn is to take a class. If you’re really brave, go to a nightclub where the dance is done, and learn while you’re doing it!
Use #LineDanceWeek in social media.
HISTORY
Line dancing first made its popular debut in the U.S. during the late 1970s on the disco scene with the Electric Slide. In the early 1980s, country line dancing was following suit with the Boot Scootin’ Boogie. Most notably, Billy Ray Cyrus’s Achy Breaky Heart not only took country music by storm, but it also brought the popularity of line dancing to the forefront.