Fancy Boots for Line Dance Steps!

There are many forms of line dancing, practiced by different cultures all around the world.  Our focus will be on Country Western line dance instructions.

The first line dance I learned was BAR ROOM ROMEO, choreographed by Ron Holiday.  I was living in Hawai’i with my daughter, Nicolette, and we started going to classes in Kealakekua taught by Darhla Andrews.  She had a line dance company called DoubleD Dancers and they put on performances all over the Big Island for residents and tourists alike, as well as having classes once a week.

Darhla had some handouts with the line dance steps, which I retyped and printed in huge letters.  Nicolette and I would tape them on the wall of our living room and practice day and night.  The biggest problem we had was trying to look back over our shoulders to read the instructions when we ended up facing the other wall.

I can still remember one advanced step that continued to elude me, Apple Jacks.  I was determined to learn how to do it, but I just couldn’t get it!  I would practically trip over my own feet and fall whenever I tried.  However, one night I had one of those “ah ha” moments at 3:00 a.m.  I jumped out of bed, poured a bunch of Johnson’s Baby Powder on the kitchen floor, and I got it!

Line Dance Songs

There are so many great line dance songs and everyone has their favorite for any particular line dance.  For instance, I love Collin Raye’s “Dreamin’ My Dreams with You” for dancing “Waltz Across Texas,” and the only song for “Watermelon Crawl” is, well, “Watermelon Crawl” by Tracy Byrd. There are a lot of good line dance videos and DVDs available also, which can help you learn the steps. One of the best is from Shawn Trautman’s Dance 101 Series entitled Line Dance 101 and you can read about it in this blog post: Shawn Trautman FREE 2-Step Line Dance Instructions.

After line dancing for a while, I got to the point where I could listen to a song and say, “Oh, that’s a good song for Go Go Stomp (or whatever)” Go Go Stomp is one of my favorites!  Everyone would laugh and say I had a talent, which was good, because my talent on the dance floor left a little bit to be desired!

By this time, I had been retyping and standardizing all of the line dance step sheets we used in class.  Not only to help me learn the steps, but to pass out to new members so they could take them home to practice.  This helped everyone learn quicker so they could participate in class.

Boots and Other Things

The boots you wear to class are special.  They’re not the same as the boots you wear when you rope cattle or muck around in the horse stalls of your barn.  They’re much lighter and the soles are thinner.  This is because your feet would turn into lead if you wore your Justin or Tony Lama boots to class!  You also want to be sure not to wear your boots outdoors, because they won’t last very long if you do.

The boots can also be very fancy and colorful, with fringe running down the sides, that swings around as you dance.  We also wore a boot bracelet on the outside of one of our boots.  The ones we wore were made of beads that glittered when we danced.  I’ve also seen some beautiful hand-beaded boot bracelets that are incredible.

The guys usually wore jeans, western shirts, and wide belts, with their George Strait look-alike hats.  Or sometimes they would show up wearing Aloha shirts and shorts, which looked kind of strange with their boots, but, oh well, to each his own!

Out and About in Hawai’i

Sometimes, after class, a group of us would go to one of the local night spots on the Big Island and “show off.”  I’m sure the tourists didn’t come to Hawai’i to hear a Hawaiian Band play “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” or “God Blessed Texas”, but the local bands did have a small repertoire of our songs and indulged us whenever we showed up.

Under the Hood

Oh, by the way, I tried my hand at choreography and wrote a line dance to Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Under the Hood.”  It’s a bit fast, but it was fun.  You can find the step sheet here in the line dance steps section.  Let me know what you think, if you give it a try.

Click here: “I love LINE DANCING!” to buy great line dance DVDs and videos for YOURSELF or your friends!

Line Dance Instructions – Join the Line Dancin’ Fun! is a post from: Line Dance Instructions blog where you can get information on line dancing, step sheets, terminology, and more!

Related posts:

1. Homey Twist – More Line Dancin’ Fun!
2. When Should You Begin Line Dance Instructions?
3. Line Dance Instructions for Seniors