How many country line dances are there


Country Line Dancing | Bella Ballroom

A line dance is choreographed routine done with a group of people that has a repeated sequence of steps. Line dancing is great fun because it can be danced with or without a partner! Country Line Dancing is popular throughout the United States and is a favorite in country nightclubs, weddings and fitness centers.

History of Country Line Dancing

There are several different theories as to how and when line dancing originated. Line dancing has many forms and has existed for thousands of years in many parts of the world. The first known line dance instructions were written in a book of dance sheets in 1650 for English Country Dancing. Country line dancing appears to have originated in Europe and arrived to the United States with the settlers who immigrated to America.

Some theorists agree that the Country Line dancing that we know today evolved from the English Country Dances, or Contra dances, that were danced in the New England states of the U. S. in the early 1800s. These Contra dances came to America by the settlers who brought their dance traditions with them. Contra dancing was a combination of European folk dances and country dancing. In Contra dancing (which is still done today) men and women stand in two separate facing lines and dance with each other. This type of line dancing had dance step patterns that were fixed so that everyone could participate.

By the mid 1800s, Western and Country dancing became very popular from the Midwest to the West Coast. While the majority of these dances were couple dances that followed set steps, some were line dances.

Line dances continued to develop in the United States. In the 1950s and the 1960s, a few line dances developed like “The Madison,” “Hully Gully,” and “San Francisco Stomp.” By the 1970s, line dances were done to many popular music styles including pop, rock and roll, swing, disco, Latin, and Jazz. The 1970s brought line dances like the “Cowboy Boogie” and the “L. A. Hustle” which combined country music with Disco songs. A few dozen more line dances for country songs were developed in the 1980s and the Country line dancing that is recognized today was probably born in Nashville, Tennessee during this time. Jim Ferrazano allegedly wrote the line dance steps to the song “Tush Push” on a napkin sometime in the 80s. Dancer Melanie Greenwood, who became a famous line dance choreographer, then tested Jim Ferrazano’s dance and brought it to the dance floor. Melanie Greenwood later wrote the line dance instructions to the song “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus. “Achy Breaky Heart” became a huge hit in 1992 and country line dancing was catapulted into the mainstream.

Line Dancing Today

Today, line dancing has very traditional dances to country music as well as popular line dances to non country music. Line dancing is popular in country-western dancing nightclubs, weddings, social clubs, ballrooms and parties worldwide. It is also used for health and fitness in gyms and fitness clubs. You can also find country line dancing in community centers as people dance as a part of social welfare and recreational programs.

Some of the most popular country line dances today are: “Tush Push,” “Cotton Eyed Joe,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” “Hoedown Throwdown,” “Cowboy Cha Cha,” “Slap Leather,” “Swamp Thing,” and “Watermelon Crawl.” Some common non-country line dances are: “Electric Slide,” “Cha Cha Slide,” “Macarena,” “Cupid Shuffle,” and “Chicken Dance.” The “Macarena” and the “Chicken Dance” are examples of modern line dances that are danced in a circle instead of a line formation.

In more recent years, music has been written to cater to dancers whereas originally dances were written to cater to the music. This has opened the doors for some dances to be done to the music of choice of the dancer.

Country line dancing has spread to other parts of the world but predominately remains in the United States, Australia, and Europe. Country line dancing’s arrival to Europe was aided by the arrival of Country Music Television in 1998. In 2014, Durham, N.C. was declared the line dancing capital of America after a capital ranking of MeetUp groups.

Online databases have been created for dancers to look up existing line dances by the name of the dance, the name of the choreographer, and the music. These databases also provide searches for places to line dance.

Line dancing is popular because it is easy to learn and avoids the problem of an imbalance of male to female partners that troubles ballroom and social partner dancers. Country line dancing is often partnered with other country western dances such as the country two-step, western promenade dances, and western-style variations of the waltz, swing, and polka.

Country Line Dance Songs

  • “Electric Slide Boogie” Marcia Griffiths
  • “Watermelon Crawl” Tracy Byrd
  • “Cha Cha Slide” Slide Man
  • “Cotton Eye Joe” Rednex
  • “Baby Likes to Rock It” The Tractors
  • “Achy Breaky Heart” Billy Ray Cyrus
  • “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” Trace Adkins
  • “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” Brooks and Dunn
  • “Good Time” Alan Jackson
  • “Footloose” Blake Shelton
  • “Baby Like to Rock It” The Tractors
  • “Country Girl (Shake it for Me)” Luke Bryan
  • “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” Big and Rick
  • “Get Into Reggae Cowboy” The Bellamy Brothers
  • “Dizzy” Scooter Lee
  • “Watermelon Crawl” Tracy Byrd
  • “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” Brooks and Dunn
  • “Good Time” Alan Jackson
  • “Cupid Shuffle” Cupid
  • “Born to Boogie” Hank Williams
  • “Centerfield” John Foggerty
  • “Cest La Vie” Bob Segar
  • “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On” The Tractors
  • “That’s the Way I Like it” KC & The Sunshine Band
  • “Tuff Enuff” The Fabulous Thunderbirds
  • “Sharp Dressed Man” ZZ Top
  • “Swing the Mood (Dance Mix)” Jive Bunny
  • “Neon Moon” Brooks and Dunn
  • “Redneck Girl” The Bellamy Brothers
  • “Tangled Up in Texas” Billy Burnette
  • “La Grange” ZZ Top
  • “Two Piña Coladas” Garth Brooks
  • “Darlene” T. Graham Brown
  • “Hog Wild” Hank Williams
  • “Chattahooche” Alan Jackson
  • “I Feel Lucky” Mary Chapin Carpenter
  • “I Love a Rainy Night” Eddie Rabbit
  • “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” Alan Jackson
  • “Swamp Thing” The Grid

Line Dancin' - Line Dance Library

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Demonstration
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Stepsheet (pdf)
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What is country style?. Who's Who in the Art World

What is country style?

Translated from English, the word country means rural, rural, local. In the 20th century, it began to be used to refer to the culture of the time of the first American settlers. Over time, the same term began to designate a style, the peculiarity of which is expressed in a combination of folklore motifs of European peoples.

First of all, country is associated with the culture that appeared when the population of the United States felt like a single nation. It probably arose under the influence of nostalgia for the past, when other moral values ​​dominated, a person seemed freer, felt unity with wild nature.

Today, in many countries of the world, specialists use the features of an old house in their developments. Since psychologists believe that the house of a modern person should be a kind of refuge, a place of rest and communication, designers adapt it to these needs. It is believed that a country-style home creates a sense of peace and a sense of stability.

The interior in this style looks unpretentious. The furniture seems primitive, it is roughly knocked together. The floor, made of wide wooden boards, is covered with homespun rugs.

The house does not have sophisticated household equipment, kitchen cabinets are installed in the kitchen with open shelves, on which copper and pewter utensils are placed. Sometimes this includes teapots that have small cracks for greater credibility. Painted chests are also common. The decoration of the rooms is not particularly diverse: quilted bedspreads, checkered fabric curtains or a small flower are organically combined with the decor. Country style lovers find inexplicable sophistication in this simplicity.

In addition to this completely American style, there are others: American Southwestern, English Country, French and Scandinavian, which are characterized by the absence of the roughness inherent in country music. They like to decorate the walls of unbaked bricks in such houses with paintings depicting animals, most often horses. The furniture is also simple, but it can be polished, and antique utensils are made of silver.

Country style is present not only in the design of the house, but also in clothing. In its manufacture, fabrics with the same pattern are used - floral patterns on a light background and with a traditional small cage. Of the colors, all shades of white are preferred (from pure to earthy). But the colors of brick, indigo, fern are also popular.

The functional and simple clothing of the farmers influenced the styles of dresses with a low waist and dresses with an apron effect. Short jackets and vests are popular. Sundresses and overalls are sewn from blue denim, which are equipped with many pockets.

But the music gives a special characteristic to the country style. Its popularity is due to the fact that it absorbed the song culture of the folklore of the English, Irish and Scottish settlers, which, combined with the Negro blues, resulted in a separate direction of musical culture.

It began to spread in the 20th century, the peak of its popularity was in the thirties, and later in the seventies. However, rural music originated at the time when America was settled by immigrants from Europe.

Practically all spheres of life have become country music themes: family, love, work. Melodies were performed on the banjo, guitar, mandolin or Fideli, violins and accordions, zithers and folk lyres, that is, on instruments that did not require long musical training.

The variety of rhythms - from slow and sad to complex and fast dance - also contributed to the popularity of country music. On a fine summer evening, farmers would gather and dance by the barns or on the weedy lawns. Rural music reflected in musical form the life of Americans who worked on the land.

But this music would never have become so popular, would not have returned to Europe in the form of a kind of remake of cowboy times, if Hollywood had not seen in it a new theme for works and another profitable project.

The rise of a new musical style began in the twenties, when Jimmie Rodgers (1897–1933) wrote a blue yodel song cycle and became country music's first star.

In 1925, the local radio station in Nashville, Tennessee played the Barn Dance, the first country music on the air. Since that time, grand old operas have been broadcast - great old operas in the style of country music.

In the thirties, Nashville became the center of the industry, and at the same time the center of country music. Concerts are held at the Old Opera House. At 1941, a new building is already being selected for them - a church in the city center, which is called the Ryman Hall (in honor of the captain who poured stocks of vodka into the river and donated $ 25,000 to build the church).

The Carter family arranges and records hundreds of traditional country songs. Ensembles with unpretentious names are growing like mushrooms. Among the performers are Dave Macon, John Carson, Linda Parker. The names of the ensembles are indicative - "Girls from the Golden West", "Cowboys from Oklahoma", "Riders of the Crimson Wormwood". The titles of the works are characteristic: "The Old Chisholm Trail", "When the Works Finish in the Fall", "A Cowboy's Dream".

At the same time, an image of a dancing and singing cowboy appears on the movie screen. The list of movie cowboys was opened by Gene Autry. Now Hollywood can only deepen and expand the “gold mine” that they have discovered. Modern means of communication - cinema, television - also contribute to the spread of country music.

Nashville is emerging as a country music production hub, not only home to hundreds of songwriting companies, but also to gig agencies scouting for new talent.

Each subsequent decade gives birth to its performers and a new style in country: in the forties, X. Williams and the Western swing style appear. In the fifties, balladers Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline were famous. In the sixties, they were replaced by several performers at once - Buck Owen, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Tammy Wynet.

The long popularity of country is explained by the fact that this music invariably reflects the tastes of young people. Therefore, with each change of generation, it became more dynamic and even aggressive. In the 1970s, country rock was represented by Graham Person. In the 1980s, updated New Country was performed by Randy Travis and Dwyat Yokem.

Country music took off in the 1990s when there were a lot of singers wearing cowboy hats.

The country music that swept over the New World, like a tsunami, also reached the shores of Europe. She came here on the same nostalgic wave. For European youth, it has become a kind of symbol of other times, simpler and more harmonious, when the dignity of a person was determined by moral criteria, and not by the thickness of his wallet. So with the help of country music, young people protested against the consumer society.

In England there was even an Association of Country Music. It is known that in Czechoslovakia more than two thousand young musicians played guitars, violins and banjos, and in Japan the most popular tune was the Tennessee Waltz. For country music, the name music without borders is the most appropriate.

Only with the spread of rock and roll (a hybrid of rhythmic blues with elements of the same rural music) country had to give up its positions. But over time, each of these styles has taken its niche. Country once again showed its vitality, the ability to adapt to new trends. Now this music is performed on electric instruments. In addition to the electric guitar, many country orchestras have a string double bass.

Today, hybrids of sorts have emerged within the country genre, such as "country rock", "country pop", "country blues" and "country jazz". "Country music" again demonstrated its ability to perceive new ideas and new sounds, was able to be imbued with new trends and new sounds. Every year in various US states, such as Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, festivals are held, in which an average of up to sixty ensembles participate.

This text is an introductory fragment.

What is style in art?

What is style in art? The word "style" itself comes from the Greek "stilus" - a pointed stick for writing. In the history of art, this word usually denotes certain periods, stages in the development of art, when there was a single system of artistic expressions.0003

What is the Greek style?

What is Greek style? Beginning around 700-200 B.C. BC e., Greek art had a huge impact on European culture. The works of Greek poets and writers, sculptors and architects were imitated in the following centuries. Getting Started

What is the Romanesque style?

What is Romanesque style? The Romanesque style (from lat. Romanus - Roman) developed by the 10th century AD. e. on the Apennine Peninsula. In the Romanesque style, masterpieces were created in sculpture, architecture and painting. Churches in

are considered an example of works created in this style.

What is the Gothic style?

What is the Gothic style? The Gothic style got its name from the name of the Germanic tribe Goths. In the 12th-16th centuries, it was represented in various forms of art, but it was most fully manifested in architecture. One of the highest achievements of the Gothic style is the cathedrals. Powerful

What is the Renaissance style?

What is the Renaissance style? In the XIV century, the Renaissance began in Europe, which approved a new style in art: the Renaissance style, which in the XIV-XVI centuries manifests itself in various art forms - architecture, sculpture, painting. Most complete features of

What is Baroque style?

What is baroque style? Baroque (late 16th - early 18th centuries) replaced the Renaissance period. The name comes from the Italian "baroque" - bizarre, strange. Unlike the styles that we wrote about earlier, it is characterized by a combination of complex, rounded shapes and curved

What is the impressionistic style?

What is the impressionist style? Its name comes from the French word impression - impression. This name arose after the exhibition of 1874, where the painting by C. Monet “Impression. Sunrise.” The main feature of this style is spontaneity

What is old and new style?

What is old and new style? Probably, you have heard more than once how elders in their conversations use such expressions as "according to the old style" or "according to the new style." Obviously, you also know that Christmas is celebrated on December 25 all over the world, and in Russia - 7

What is style in art?

What is style in art? The word "style" itself comes from the Greek "stilus" - a pointed stick for writing. In the history of art, this word usually designates certain periods, stages in the development of art, when there was a single system of artistic

What is the Greek style?

What is Greek style? Beginning around 700-2000. BC e. Greek art had a huge impact on European culture. The works of Greek poets and writers, sculptors and architects were imitated in the following centuries. Getting Started

What is the impressionistic style?

What is the impressionist style? Its name comes from the French word impression - impression. This name arose after the exhibition of 1874, where the painting by C. Monet “Impression. Sunrise. The main feature of this style is spontaneity

What is the Romanesque style?

What is Romanesque style? The Romanesque style (from lat. Romanus - Roman) developed by the 10th century AD. e. on the Apennine Peninsula. Its features are manifested in sculpture, architecture and painting. However, the features of the Romanesque style can be traced most clearly in church

What is the Gothic style?

What is the Gothic style? Gothic (from the name of the Germanic tribe Goths) style (1150-1500) is presented in various art forms. But most of all it manifested itself in architecture. One of the highest achievements of the Gothic style is the Gothic cathedrals. Powerful columns,

What is the Renaissance style?

What is the Renaissance style? The Renaissance (circa 1450-1650) manifests itself in various art forms - architecture, sculpture, painting. The most complete features of the Renaissance style were reflected in Italian art, and with the greatest brightness - in painting and

What is Baroque style?

What is baroque style? The Baroque (1620–1700) succeeded the Renaissance period. The name comes from the Italian. "baroque" - bizarre, strange. Unlike the styles discussed earlier, it is characterized by a combination of complex, rounded shapes and curved lines and planes. Walls and

What is classical style?

What is classic style? Classicism mainly developed in architecture, from 1770 to 1850.


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