How to do the footloose line dance
What Line Dance is in the Movie Footloose? Is it Easy to Learn? – Country Dancing Tonight
As someone that loves line dancing, it is exciting to see line dancing get a little extra exposure in, say, a major movie or tv show. That’s exactly what happened back in 2011 with the remake of the movie Footloose! Early in the movie the 4 main characters (Ren, Ariel, Willard, and Rusty) go to the big city and get in on some country line dancing. The line dance is pretty easy to see and very intriguing and many have been curious what it is called. But between the name of the song heard and the name of the movie, there seems to be some confusion! This post will break it all down and should answer all questions!
The line dance in the 2011 remake of Footloose is Fake ID, choreographed for and danced to Big and Rich’s song Fake ID. The Choreographers were Jamal Sims & Dondraico Johnson.
That’s really all you need to know if you were just wondering what the dance is, but read on to see why it could be confusing and also to find out more about the dance and best of all how to learn it yourself!
How People Get Confused about the Line Dance in Footloose
It can be a little confusing to people what the line dance might have been for a few reasons. Firstly, at least one resource online confuses the dance with another dance Jamal Sims choreographed for a different movie. Back in 2009, Jamal was the choreographer for the dance scene in the Hannah Montana Movie and created Hoedown Throwdown. So, that’s the first thing! The line dance in Footloose is not Hoedown Throwdown! It’s Fake ID.
Next, it might be confusing, simply because there is a line dance called Footloose. And as with many popular songs, there will always be choreographers that will create their own line dance for a given song. Footloose is no different! There are (when I counted) about 21 versions! With so many Footloose line dances out there it makes sense people would just assume that in the Movie it must be one of them. But it is not! It is Fake ID.
Finally, there’s a very popular line dance called Slappin’ Leather that was choreographed for the original song of the same name as the movie.
I’m guessing this has led some to think that line dance is the one in the movie. but it is not! The line dance in Footloose is Fake ID!
But as a side note, Slappin’ Leather is a very fun line dance and easier to learn by far than Fake ID! I’ve included Slappin’ Leather in my list of 20 Beginner Line Dances You Need to Know! post. Click here and click on #16 in the list to watch a video, download the step sheet, and learn Slappin’ Leather!
Is it Easy to Learn the Line Dance Fake ID?
As I just mentioned Slappin’ Leather is an easier dance to learn than Fake ID. So, yes Fake ID is actually a pretty hard dance to learn. If you are a beginner it might take some effort. But if you can hang in there and get it, beginner dances will be a breeze! Below are 3 videos showing how to do the line dance Fake ID.
To get an idea of how the dance stacks up in degree of difficulty here are some stats about the dance:
Original Choreography:
| Count: 48 | Tag: After each wall | Wall: 1 | Level: Intermediate |
https://youtu.be/F2_Qp4rs31wVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Foot Loose – Fake ID Line Dance – Official Dance Tutorial (https://youtu.be/F2_Qp4rs31w)
The official Fake ID video being taught by the choreographers Jamal Sims & Dondraico Johnson. This is cool to see the actual choreographers teach the steps to the Fake ID line dance from Footloose! Watch ’til the end when they dance in sync with the Footloose movie clip!Modified Choreography:
| Count: 48 | Tag: After first wall | Walls: 4 | Level: Intermediate |
https://youtu.
be/LCLCN4CqwP4Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Footloose (Part 1) Line Dance Instruction Choreography by Kerry Kick (https://youtu.be/LCLCN4CqwP4)
https://youtu.be/Sfop8K_49QAVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Footloose Part 2 Instruction Choreography by Kerry Kick (https://youtu.be/Sfop8K_49QA)
This is part 2 of the teaching video. This will go over the tag that starts the dance on wall 1 like Jamal’s but then shows how it can be a 4 wall line dance from that point forward.https://youtu.be/EwJV6cijg-UVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Fake ID – Line Dance – May 26, 2012.mp4 (https://youtu.be/EwJV6cijg-U)
This is a great demo of the dance with all the sections/tags noted as it progresses.I’ve included these last three videos because at least in Southern California this is the version of Fake ID people are learning and dancing.
And I won’t lie, the original choreography is already pretty challenging, but this 4 wall version with 3 tags is even trickier. If you’re new to line dancing and you just said: “what’s a tag?” Click here for an explanation of tags.
Step Sheet: Click here to download.
Comparing the Dancing in the 1984 & 2011 Footloose Movies
While the music and dancing are different, the storyline and dialogue are surprisingly identical. The new movie really doesn’t get ambitious and stray too far from the original. I think the movies complement each other well. There are parts of the original that are superior to the redo, but also scenes in the remake that explore the moment more and take things to a new place.
For example, the death-defying, heart-pounding early scene of Ariel recklessly straddling the two speeding vehicles toward an oncoming semi is not recreated in the 2nd movie. However, it does depict the original tragedy that is the foundation for the story.
It’s heart-stopping as you immediately know no one survives.
The car accident that kills 5 high school kids in Bomont is tragic and leads to the town’s conclussion that rock ‘n’ roll music, alcohol and dancing are to blame. Dancing is outlawed… until city boy Ren comes to town to shake things up.
But back to the dancing and music of the movies…
The Original Footloose movie with choreography by Herbert Ross is super fun and explosive. In general, the dancing in the original feels more authentic and raw. More spontaneous and, more rebellious.
The new Ren actually seems less rebellious and more clean cut. The dancing follows in some way. I think the main difference in dance scenes between the two movies would be the scene that features the line dance Fake ID. In the original, the music heard is Hurt So Good and Footloose. In the new movie, the scene is far more developed with the much more choreographed dance scene featuring the line dance Fake ID to the Big and Rich song Fake ID.
Jamal Sims’ Goal for the 2011 Footloose Choreography
When interviewed Jamal Sims working for Craig Brewer (the director of Footloose) said their goal was to “catch the spirit” of the original and not to create something over the top. They wanted to maintain the Southern homeyness of the original but interject modern dance moves into it. I think they were successful. 27 years after the original release, Craig Brewer and Jamal Sims gave us a modernized high-res version of Footloose for a new audience.
The final video embedded here is the scene including the line dance Fake ID. One thing for sure is that it’s energetic and fun and I’m sure it has led to lots of people wanting to learn it and even get further into line dancing.
https://youtu.be/5lgCxWubUnUVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Footloose (2011) – Line Dancing Scene (6/10) | Movieclips (https://youtu.be/5lgCxWubUnU)
Footloose line dancing scene when Ren, Ariel, Willard and Rusty cross the state line to go dancing.
Footloose Movie Soundtracks Compared
Besides the dancing and the different choreography, just for fun, here’s a comparison of the actual music. Both movies took most of their soundtrack from modern songs of their time, but the remake also kept several from the original.
1984 Footloose Original Soundtrack: (In order of occurrence)
| Song | Artist | Movie Scene |
|---|---|---|
| The Girl Gets Around | Sammy Hagar | Ariel straddling the car & truck |
| Dancing in the Sheets | Shalamar | Hi-Spot Drive-In Theater scene |
| Bang Your Head | Quiet Riot | Getting pulled over by cop scene |
| Somebody’s Eyes | Karla Bonoff | Ariel and Chuck’s picnic |
| Holding out for a Hero | Bonnie Tyler | Tractor chicken race scene |
| Never | Moving Pictures | Ren’s angry dance scene |
| Hurts So Good | John Mellencamp | Dance club scene |
| Waiting for a Girl Like You | Foreigner | Dance club scene |
| Footloose | Kenny Loggins | Dance club scene |
| Let’s Hear it for the Boy | Deniece Williams | Teaching Willard to dance scenes |
| I’m Free | Kenny Loggins | Final dance preparation scene |
| Almost Paradise | Ann Wilson and Mike Reno | Slow dance at the prom scene |
2011 Footloose Original Soundtrack: (In order of occurrence)
| Song | Artist | Movie Scene |
|---|---|---|
| Footloose | Blake Shelton | Title and kids driving off |
| Where the River Goes | Zack Brown | Ren MacCormack coming into town |
| Walkin’ Blues | CeeLo Green | Car repair scene |
| Bang Your Head | Quiet Riot | Car repair scene |
| Suicide Eyes | Thousand Horses | Race track scene |
| Holding Out for a Hero | Ella Mae Bown | Quiet scene of Ren at home |
| Catch Hell Blues | The White Stripes | Angry dance scene |
| Fake ID | Big & Rich | Dance club scene |
| Let’s Hear It for the Boy | Deniece Williams | Teaching Willard to dance scenes |
| Little Lovin’ | Lissie | Final dance preparation |
| Almost Paradise | Victoria Justice and Hunter Hayes | Slow dance at the prom scene |
Man In Tight Jeans Steals The Show In “Footloose” Line Dance
Country line dancing is a beloved form of dance because you learn how to do it with lots of friends.
These choreographed routines involve a group of people dancing in line to a repeated sequence of steps in unison.
These dances can be done with or without a partner and are popular throughout the U.S. and country nightclubs.
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
You’ll also find line dancing incorporated into fitness routines and done at weddings, according to Bella Ballroom.
Line dancing is believed to have existed in different forms for thousands of years in different 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,” their website says.
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
“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.”
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
Nowadays there are choreographed country line dances that have specific names like the “Tush Push,” “Cowboy Cha Cha,” “Swamp Thing,” “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” and “Watermelon Crawl.”
There are also non-country line dances like the “Macarena,” “Cupid Shuffle,” and “Chicken Dance.” Some even create and trademark their own country line dances like David Villellas’s “Holy Moly.”
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
According to Copper Knob, he’s choreographed or co-choreographed about 25 dances.
His performance of the “Holy Moly” in Sauzé-Vassussais, France was posted on YouTube and viewed more than 500,000 times.
The performance was danced to the song “Footloose” which was originally written and performed by Kenny Loggins.
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
The song was released in 1984 as one of the first two singles from the film of the same name, according to Wikipedia.
But the version Villellas choreographed his dance to was the one by Blake Shelton.
The performance began with all of Villellas’s crew standing in their lines, all dressed in denim jeans, flannel shirts or t-shirts, and white cowboy hats.
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
They started their routine clapping before they busted out their fancy footwork that began with a stomp of the foot then a spin.
These country guys and gals slid to the right and twisted their feet back and forth.
They were hopping around in a circle and did some stomping around, all in unison.
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
They spun around on one foot, then the other, and tipped their cowboy hats to the audience.
They made their moves together as if they were a single unit.
The dancers shuffled around in line to the left and right all in perfect time.
Source:
am mangelschots - YouTube
They then slowed their moves down a bit as they moved forward and back. But then their speed picked back up again to create some intermittent stomps and spins.
And it just looks like great fun, though everyone was concentrated on their intricate steps.
You can’t help but get excited and pumped up when you hear this song. Especially when you’re watching so many people hop around having fun. These people were really cutting loose and ended their song with one final stomp and high fives for a job well done.
Check out the whole dance in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
am mangelschots
Bella Ballroom
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D.G. is a contributing writer in Shareably. She's based in Connecticut and can be reached at [email protected].
What is free dance and why does it have so many fans around the world
Maria Belokovylskaya went to the strangest disco in her life
Maria Belokovylskaya
The dancers groan, growl, suddenly fall to the floor, freeze, looking at one point, and then jump wildly, falling into a trance. An unfamiliar man puts his hands on my shoulders and looks intently into my eyes, as if we had just
returned from honeymoon. It seems that the entire musical heritage of mankind was sent to the mixer and the maximum whipping mode was chosen: after the Pet Shop Boys, the harbinger of the apocalypse rumbles Carmina
Burana. This is how a free dance looks like, it is also rhythmoplastic, it is also ecstatic dance. No aperitifs and mind-expanding substances - everything happens in a sober mind and sound memory.
Only you, music and a group of strangers with whom you have to exchange something that you cannot yet formulate. At first, I feel like an uninvited guest at the Sabbath or a witness to an exorcism, and as an impostor I timidly huddle in the corner. But soon I cease to control the body and completely surrender to the action. What is happening in the hall is controlled by a tall man with the appearance of a shaman, who calls himself a guide. Not a teacher - during the free dance you are not taught anything. You yourself find the answers to the necessary questions, and the guide only helps to come to them in the shortest way.
Nick Hobbs
Tasha Birch
My guide is Nick Hobbs, an Englishman living in Istanbul. During his Moscow tour, which happened to him every few months before the pandemic, Hobbs holds open freedance sessions for everyone. These sessions are thematic. For example, our theme sounds like female waves. It looks like the name of the trainings about seduction, but in reality it is about the study of the mysterious female soul and gender expression.
“I work only with those topics that are of interest to me,” Nick explains. “And I immediately see how it responds.” Hobbs teaches yoga, translates Jacques Brel, writes plays and guidebooks about unknown Istanbul, arranges performances and speaks nine languages, including flawless Russian. Answering the question of how he came to freedancing, Nick says that he always moved a lot and did not understand what to do with this energy. “I was an actor and performer, but not a dancer. And about 10 years ago I met Alex Nikiforov, one of the key figures of the freedance movement in Russia. My style in dance was formed under the influence of yoga and my inner feelings.” My session with Nick lasted more than seven hours, which flew by like a comet. But even this is not the limit. Dance meditation schools hold retreats in which participants dance for several days in a row. Freedance did not appear yesterday. She came up with one of the most popular techniques for working with the body at 1960s American Gabriela Roth is a director, dancer, philosopher and teacher with a special interest in shamanism.
She called her practice "5 Rhythms". Roth had her own musical group, The Mirrors, and she even recorded two records with Boris Grebenshchikov - "Refuge", a kind of Buddhist ceremony consisting of prayers and mantras, and the album "Crossing". "5 Rhythms" is a mix of shamanism, mysticism, Eastern philosophy, Gestalt therapy and transpersonal psychology. The idea is that by being in motion, we free the mind and become one with our true nature, the source of limitless possibilities. In Prayer After Sweat, Roth talks about movement as a spiritual practice and details the basic principles of the 5 Rhythms.
Roth followers in the UK - Suzanne and Jacob Darling Khan, husband and wife. “After studying with Gabriela, we started teaching, and in 1996 we opened The Moving Center School UK, a 5 Rhythms center in Europe,” they say. “We have been running this school for 10 years and have worked with thousands of people from different countries.” Over the years, Suzanne and Yakov developed their own method, which was influenced by communication with Peruvian shamans.
“Time spent in the Amazonian jungle changed everything.
THE DANCER'S OBJECTIVE IS THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF STEREOTYPES OF THINKING, MOVEMENT AND BEHAVIOR.
There we got acquainted with mandalas and realized that they contain important knowledge for unlocking human potential.” In 2007, the Darling Khans created The School of Movement Medicine, a synthesis of mandala work and conscious movement practice. In Russia, one of the pioneers of freedance is Alexander Girshon, a candidate of psychological sciences, a dancer and a performer. You can get to his classes at the Center for Integral Dance, which he also founded. "AT 90% of the time I conduct dance-psychological training, explains Girshon. “This is a specific genre that combines dance improvisation, dance-movement and body psychotherapy, as well as personal growth training.” In dance, a person develops the so-called moving self: a holistic creative experience and the embodiment of one's own "I".
Actor, director and creator of the La Pushkin theater Oleg Zhukovsky also conducts trainings.
The task of the dancer is the complete destruction of stereotypes of thinking, movement and behavior. A lot of what needs to be expressed is repressed into our subconscious. Zhukovsky's "Dance of the Body" training allows you to penetrate into the very depths and meet with an unfamiliar creature that lives in each of us, and then release it into the wild. In other words, wake up the inner beast. The principle of releasing pure, unrestrained
The creative flow is also at the heart of the theater project La Pushkin, with which Zhukovsky traveled to 16 countries. “Stanislavsky invented the theater of experience, and I have a theater of living” - this is how the creator describes his method.
Another Russian school at the intersection of dance and transpersonal psychology is Authentic Movement with Nina Kungurova.
Kungurova not only teaches classes, but also arranges online workshops with famous teachers. For example, with Janet Adler and Fu Schroeder.
Adler is the author of the authentic movement discipline method and has been working in hospices for over 30 years. Schroeder is the abbess of the Zen Center in San Francisco, who actively supports programs for ethnic and sexual minorities. Everyone has their own way to freedance. Nick Hobbs' girlfriend, Tasha Birch, was a professional sportswoman before dancing meditation. “I was an athlete and ran marathons,” she recalls. - Then I became interested in yoga and once got to a yoga therapy session in the Crimea. After shavasana, the master suggested moving as the body wants. And my body didn’t want anything - I didn’t understand how to start dancing among strangers and what kind of movements these should be. There are asanas in yoga, and everything is clear with them, but here you need to follow an unknown call. As an athlete, I thought that I had perfect control over my body, but it turned out that we didn’t even know him.” Over time, Tasha said goodbye to professional sports - she says that, despite her good physical shape, "did not feel fully included - as if there were not enough pieces in the puzzle.
" Once the girl got to the session "5 Rhythms" - and then everything fell into place. “I realized that dance practice can be very deep. For some, this is a drain of emotions, which is also great, but someone is experiencing qualitative internal changes. It is impossible to comprehend this by thinking, especially Western thinking: it is directed outward.” In order to better understand the structure of the human psyche and the processes that occur during free dance, Tasha received an education in the field of transpersonal psychology. “Now it is natural for me to express myself through the body and movements. And when I add a voice, it’s already a cosmic level of awareness,” she smiles. The author of this text is still far from space, but something in the universe has nevertheless moved. After a session with Nick Hobbs, you want to smile, thoughts in your head are like volatile substances, and your body is lighter than a balloon. Not a single school disco gave me such a feeling. And not a single slow dance ended with such an amazing date with yourself.
Types of modern dances. Free dance.
Free dance stood at the origins of the dance of the twentieth century; it formulated the principles on which modern and jazz modern dance, contemporary, and even butoh and contact improvisation were based.
Today there are many different dance styles. And over time, only new ones appear, different from the previous ones and interesting in their own way.
And as one of the popular and relatively new dances, this is free dance .
Free dance, also known as rhythmic plastic or plastic, is a dance that emerged in the early twentieth century as a movement to free the former ballet theater from conventionality and merge dance with life.
Thus, free dance appeared in the 20th century; it then formulated the principles on which jazz-modern dance, contemporary dance, and even butoh or contact improvisation were based.
Wearing stylish glasses, dancing attire and energizing for the performance, this dance can really set the hearts of the audience on fire.
The creators of free dance are united not only by the desire to turn it into a high art, which has an equal status with painting or music, but also a special worldview.
To some extent they accepted Nietzsche's idea of dance as a metaphor for freedom and of the dancer as the embodiment of a more liberated and more creative spirit. And therefore, for the founders of free dance, this dance became a special new philosophy, from which the transformation of life was expected.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - German thinker, classical philologist, composer, poet, creator of an original philosophical doctrine, which is emphatically non-academic in nature and is widespread, going far beyond the scientific and philosophical community.
So, Isadora Duncan dreamed of a new person, to whom dance would be as organic as everyday affairs, and of a woman of the future, who possesses "the most exalted mind in the most free body.
"
Isadora Duncan is an innovative American dancer, the founder of free dance. She developed a dance system and plasticity, which she associated with ancient Greek dance. The wife of the poet Sergei Yesenin in 1922-1924.
The ideological source of free dance is the desire for physical improvement, emancipation of the body.
The supporters of free dance looked for a source of rebirth in nature, called everyone to naturalness, to liberation from the requirements that are imposed on us by modern civilization.
The creators of free dance were united not only by the desire to turn it into a high art, having an equal status with music or painting, but also by a special worldview.
All of them, to one degree or another, accepted Nietzsche's idea of dance as a metaphor for freedom and the dancer as the embodiment of a liberated and creative spirit.
French François Delsarte (1811-1870) - theater actor, singer, music teacher and creator of the new gymnastics - proclaimed that the body has its own language; after him, the expression "poetry of the body" became popular.
Duncan's ideal was the "beautifully natural" movements of ancient dance, the simple movements of walking and running. She was the first of the dancers to refuse a corset and leotards and performed in clothes that did not interfere with movements - a tunic.
Tunic (lat. tunica) - clothes in the form of a bag with a hole for the head and arms, usually covering the entire body from the shoulders to the hips. Tunic , made without a waist, spread in ancient Rome
Another source of free dance was the rhythm of Émile Jacques-Dalcroze (1865-1950). A music and singing teacher from Geneva, he initially used rhythm training as a preparation for playing a musical instrument. Later, Dalcroze began to promote rhythm as a way of educating the will, strengthening physical and mental health, and the harmonious development of a person.
Another reformer among those who used dance for their own purposes was Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925).
Although the anthroposophy he created was much closer to Christianity than to antiquity, for him the harmony of man with nature, the cosmos was also an ideal.
He invented his own system of movements - eurythmy - a dance filled with symbolic meaning not only to music, but also "to the word", or poetry.
All the creators of free dance saw in it not art for art's sake - a phenomenon of elite culture - but part of a democratic, mass culture - in the best sense of the word.
The founders of free dance believed that everyone could and should dance, and that dance would help everyone develop and change their lives.
One of the creators of free dance in our country, S. D. Rudneva (1890—1989), saw in her work “mainly its human value, to create a new life."
Together with like-minded people, she developed a unique method of plastic reading of music - musical movement and founded the studio " Geptakhor ".
During the difficult years of the 1920s, its participants lived as a commune, organizing life in accordance with their ideals, and then devoted themselves to children, creating unique methods for the development of the child's personality.
New generation of dancers - Mary Wigman, Martha Graham , Merce Cunningham and others were also fearless experimenters in art: Wigman began to dance without music (her favorite instrument was the gong), obeying only the rhythms of her body; critics wrote that she herself creates music with her movements.
Graham analyzed the laws of motion of the female body in dance; as a result of her work, the dancer was no longer considered the epitome of weakness.
Cunningham worked with the creators of the avant-garde - composer by John Cage , artist Robert Rauschenberg , influenced by Zen philosophy.
But their work has centered within the individual body.
Unlike the pioneers of free dance, they were more interested not in growing a new person or developing a personality, but in physical characteristics - such as energy, movement, interaction of the body with the environment.
The spirit of free dance is present in the current movement towards improvisation, spontaneity and creative freedom.
Thus, the Butoh dance originated in post-war Japan in the wake of liberation from the rigid conventions of traditional theatre.
Contact improvisation continues not only the trend of free dance towards improvisation, but also its democratic character. The domestic direction, called the musical movement, is looking for ways to teach dance and improvisation to any person.
These features of free dance make it a powerful tool for awakening creativity in a person, developing personality and allow it to be successfully used in dance movement therapy.
