Archive | August 2019

5 Helpful Tips for Line Dancing

1.
Something to remember while learning to line dance, and this is very important: Catch onto the steps that you can for the dance you are learning, and trust that you will pick up the rest of the dance with time and practice. You might pick up the walking to the right four steps and walking to the left four steps, but not anything else at first. But with each subsequent time you go over the line dance, whether that is during class while your instructor is teaching, or practicing at home you will pick up more and more. By the way, it is not uncommon for me to FINALLY get the steps on the last rotation when the song is just about over. 🙂

2.
Try to find a class to attend in person. The instructional videos found online are great, but if you are a beginner I believe it will be much easier to make sense of the instruction in real life. Realize you may flail around in the beginning, we have all been there. Just keep moving and keep trying. Even if you think you have two left feet, you will get it!

3.
Keep in mind as you learn each dance, you are learning steps that will almost certainly be used in other dances. After you have been line dancing for awhile, you will find that you pick up the dances more quickly, and part of that is because you already learned those steps in previous dances.

4.
Be sure to wear appropriate shoes. To my first class I wore athletic shoes, the type that you would wear to work out or run in. I did not know that because they grip, they prevent your feet from moving (pivoting) on the dance floor. This can be harmful to your knees and other joints. If you can’t find dance sneakers, at the very least invest in “dance socks” which will allow you to wear just about any kind of shoe. See my review on Dance Socks to learn more.

5.
If you love the song, you will LOVE the dance! Many of my old favorite songs from when I was a teen have a line dance to go with them. The easiest way to find out is to do a search on YouTube with the name of the song,with the words “line dance” in quotations and you may find a line dance to the song you love.

Over At Fannie Mae’s Line Dance

I recently attended the NOLA Southern Experience hosted by Linda Simms, “The Who Dat Teacher”. It was a fabulous, amazing event and I felt like Cinderella when it was over. Linda taught this line dance at one of the workshops. Here is the instructional video, taught by Constance Jones.

Dance: Over At Fannie Mae’s
Choreographer: Aline Goodman
Song: Over at Fannie Mae’s
Artist: Charles Wilson

Here is a video of the same group as above performing this line dance so that you can dance along.