Line Dancing and Ballroom Dancing Help Each Other

Dance Safari is a blog that promotes partner dancing.  So what’s this business about line dancing? You’ll be interested to know that there are a lot of ways that line dancing helps your ballroom dancing.  The bottom line is, line dancing will make you a better ballroom dancer.  Who knew!

What is line dancing?

A line dance is a choreographed routine that’s performed in a line. There’s no partner in a line dance.  Most people associate line dancing with country music, but any kind of music will work.  

By the way, check out this Dance Safari post, “New Vogue Style Dancing” which is also called Sequence Dancing.  It’s kind of a combination of ballroom and line dancing.

A line dance consists of:

• The repetition of a sequence of steps commencing with the right foot.
• The sequence consists of 32 beats broken down into 4 counts of 8.
• Each 8 count is a pattern or step.
• The last 8 steps will probably have you making a 1/4 turn to the left so that you face a new wall, and…
• Repeat

Sounds fun and easy.  Exactly how does it help?

That’s a good question.  To begin with, think about it, you don’t have a partner.  No partner means you’re responsible for holding yourself up.  So, you’ve got to have good posture.  Indeed, good posture ensures balance. 

Second, once you feel balanced, you’re free to use your poise to express the music.  Consequently, line dancing allows you to develop your own style which will easily translate to your ballroom dancing.  

Third, joining in a line dance is a great way to socialize.  You’ll be part of a happy group that is moving and loving the music.  To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with that!

Finally, the biggest way that learning line dancing is going to help your ballroom dancing is by training you to memorize sequences.  It’s just like learning steps.  So, if you feel like you have a hard time remembering steps, give line dancing a try.  If you do, you’re sure to get better results.

If line dancing is so helpful, why don’t more ballroom dance studios offer it?

Actually, it’s becoming more common.  Some studios begin their practice party with a line dance as a way to get everyone up and moving around.  It’s a clever warm-up that gets all of the students and guests involved.

There’s a studio in Vermont called Ballroom Nights.  They offer this type of class as a way to teach the basics of a variety of ballroom dances. Their website states, “After mastering the footwork of the steps you will have an easier time adapting the patterns you have learned with your partner, along with applying the fundamentals of leading and following.”  

Whatever style of dancing you like to do, here’s hoping you get to do it often and with the people you love.

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