Life in the Old West of the United States is what actually shaped the style of dance that we know today as country dancing. It was a clash of cultures as the more puritanically inclined and bred families from the East moved West to meet the untamed cowboys that called this region home. Cowboys were not graceful in the least and had little time or patience to learn complicated moves and steps that were popular for dancing back east.
In order to accommodate the Eastern sensibilities in the face of Western practicalities a new style of dancing was created that allowed brief and intermittent and to keep them all in order a “caller” was created. His job was to bark out steps so that the dancing crowd would move in some remote form of order. It was the cowboys, however who made a profound “mark” on country dancing simply by dancing as they lived—with an incredible amount of zeal.
During the 1920’s radio was used to bring the country and western styled music to everyone in the nation and country dancing that had been somewhat limited to the West began moving East. But Bob Wills is the one that takes the credit for the style of dancing we know today as Western Swing, which really is the parent of modern country swing dancing. Ironically it was also the tempo that inspired be-bop music, which introduced a new style of swing dancing that went beyond traditional country dancing and paved the way for the Rock-n-Roll of the 1950’s.
Country dancing has made a few twists and turns throughout the centuries and made a few detours. In the last 30 years we’ve seen a return to the old ways of country dancing with Square Dancing and Swing Dancing gaining popularity among younger audiences. Another thing we’ve seen is a new way of dancing to country and western music. This new style of country dancing is widely known as line dancing. While dancing in a line has a much longer history than it’s current role in country and western style dancing, country line dancing is one of the most popular dance styles of the modern era.
During the 1980’s, movies such as Grease and Urban Cowboy ignited several great country clubs around the country into adding a few popular country dances to their regular rotation of music. These dances included the Two Step, the Cotton Eyed Joe, and the Country Swing in addition to a couple of line dances that were popular from these movies.
In fact, it was ultimately Billy Ray Cyrus and his Achy Breaky Heart that brought line dancing to the height of popularity with lightening quickness and an excellent marketing plan. It worked without a hitch, sold millions of records, and made Cyrus and line dancing a household name in the United States. Of course other country music acts were quick to jump on the bandwagon, if you will pardon the pun, and create fantastic new line dances for their music as well. Almost overnight, country dancing and dancers were filling up country and western bars and saloons around the world with this popular, energetic, and fun style of dancing that could be done with or without a date.
Take a look at the videos and see for yourself why line dancing of all the country dances seems to be taking the world by storm. If you do not have a hard time not tapping your toes to the music then this may not be for you but most people find it quite hard to resist. Perhaps the most important thing is that most of these steps offer simple versions for those with less experience as well as more complicated and ‘showy’ country dancing steps for those who are more advanced in their mastery of the moves.
