I went to my first country western bar with a  co-worker sometime around 2009. We were looking to try something new and joked about meeting cowboys. What we found was a dance club where everyone seemed to know every dance on the packed dance floor which surprised and intimated us. I had taken jazz dance classes as a child and was used to performing. From my barstool I attempted to follow along with tiny movements hoping I could venture on the dance floor at some point but I couldn’t. I didn’t return to the club up for some time.

 

Months later I was looking for ways to entertain family visiting from out of town. We returned to the bar and stayed longer this time and found that later in the night tought simple dances for inexperienced dancers. Things started to change when I was able to pick up a  dance called Canadian Stomp. I remember still doing as we walked out to the parking lot. Not too long after that I started attending the weekly Saturday night class.

 

Dancing once a week wasn’t enough to learn anything significant. especially since I left shortly after class ended because I didn’t know the dances and didn’t know anyone. That changed a few months later when another co-worker started going with me and she pushed for us to go more often. Soon we were dancing four or five nights a week.

 

I wanted to be able to perform all of the dances so I wouldn’t have to sit on the sidelines and watch. Little by little I started making friends who filled me in on all the secrets of how to learn the other dances. They showed me how to find the dances online using websites such as Kickit and Copperknob post the dance step sheets explaining the choreography. I learned how to read the step sheets and saved all of the dances in an app on my iPhone so they could be retrieved easily without having to look it up each time. I practiced at home and on my lunch break at work and withing a year I learned all of the regularly played dances. 

 

Also around that time I attended Fun in the Sun which is an annual line dance event held in Orlando in July. The popular choreographers teach their dances in workshops throughout the day and then at night there is open dancing. There was also the opportunity to socialize with the choreographers which is lots of fun. Fun in the Sun showed me that there is more to line dancing than just knowing all the steps. I thought the people at the club at home were serious about dancing but these people took it to another level.  There is style and grace and sophistication in your movements that comes with practice and many years of dancing. 

 

And that is what is great about dancing. One can do it just for fun or they can really get into it.