How to Line Dance

The line dance is a group activity where several lines of participants dance in unison. The driving force in line dancing varies from directions within the lyrics of a song to a professional line dance caller at a club. Once you learn a few basic steps, you can cultivate sound line dancing skills.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Ask for a step sheet for line dances that are commonly used at a club. A step sheet indicates the correlation between line dance sequences and parts of a particular song. Line dances are arranged in a certain number of sequences, which are broken down into an even number of beats.
2. Focus on your own position within the line instead of watching other dancers for cues. You should only look at the person in front of you if you feel you are a step behind. Line dance leaders will initiate a restart if too many people are off the beat.
3. Work on your grapevine step away from the dance floor in order to increase your step speed. The grapevine is a foot-over-foot move sideways that is a common transition from one sequence to the next. In addition to helping you succeed in line dancing, the grapevine is a good move to add to your general collection of dance skills.
4. Practice the triple step in order to add a new wrinkle to your line dance experience. This movement is three steps within two beats that is used in faster versions of line dancing. The complexity of the triple step originates from breaking the one beat to one step ration common in dancing.
5. Stay a few moments ahead of rotations to the left and right during a two and four wall line dance. Walls are the directional cues in line dancing, with two walls representing alternation between front and back.
6. Appreciate the improvisation and adjustments that experienced line dancers make during their performances. As you become comfortable with line dance steps, you will want to challenge yourself to come up with original dance steps. Check out the World Line Dance Newsletter to see the different techniques that other line dancers have created (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• Build long term relationships with line dancers you meet in class or clubs. Line dancing is a group activity and your desire to dance on a regular basis depends on the availability of other participants. Organize a monthly meeting or a regular time to dance at your favorite club.