“Line Dance,” just as “Sacred Circle,” is obviously not a country: It is a genre of dance. The most common example is that of the country-western line dance, as done in CW bars. In this form, dancers arrange themselves in one or more lines, or a grid or rows of lines, and dance as individuals, but all perform the exact same steps and movements. While line dancing precedes country-western bars, that genre certainly drove the popularity of the format. Today, “modern” line dancing is done to just about every genre of music. The dances are always choreographed to a specific tune or song and participants must learn and practice the steps. The dances don’t represent a particular ethnicity, and the music genre influences the dance style only superficially, if at all.
Most line dances/modern line dances that make it into international folk dancing repertoires originate in USA, regardless of the music genre one might try with which to associate the dance ethnicity. Even if a line dance originates outside of USA, it still draws mostly from the line dance pantry of standardized moves ingredients to cook up the new dance, and there’s no particular ethnicity represented, and the dance remains a Recreational Non-Ethnic creation.
Note: many folk dancing sites and literature refers to non-partner international folk dances as being “line dances,” but this is an imprecise terminology. Theses dances are properly called circle dances or chain dances, even if the circle is broken/open.
- Wikipedia entry for Line dance
- CopperKnob Stepsheets
Line Dances We Know/Are Working on at TNFD
- A Bar Song [Ben Murphy] • Line Dance • Germany {Country-Hip-Hop}
- Jimmy Copacabana • Line Dance • Canada & USA {Latin}
- Tokyo Polka (Ievan Polkka) [Richard Powers] • Line Dance • USA {Finnish/VOCALOID}
- Witches’ Dance to „Schüttel deinen Speck” (Shake Your Bacon) [Wolfshäger Hexenbrut] • Line Dance • Germany {Reggae Rap-Pop}