Footloose

[Steve Pastor]

When the new version came out I was really excited about it, but didn't post because there is a whole lot of partner dancing in it.
Well, a "Footloose" line dance was taught the other night where I dance all the time, and it pretty much left me cold. So, I started poking around and found a few things that I think a pretty cool, there there's actually some partner dancing in there.
There are a ton of young people coming out to the country place, (don't know if Footloose has anything to do with it) and some of the women want to dance with guys who know how to dance. Not many, but enough. And line dancing has always been a way to get people in the door and taking lessons.
I've had this stuff bookmarked for days...

You might know who Benji Schwimmer is. This is from SYTYCD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OnQfs3GpVw&feature=related
I'm lovin' how they just kill the breaks. The new line dance doesn't even know there are breaks in the Blake Shelton version.

This one's the "Official Video" from the new film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mzpuUzLKx4

Lastly, this one from Big and Rich.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMvDOXO89f8&feature=related
There's even a bit of "partnering", but, man, look at how they make even the simpliest moves look good.

Anyone else out there start with line dancing?

[pygmalion]

I watched all three.

On the Benji Schwimmer routine, yepper. They KILLED the breaks. I love that! Lots of recognizable WCS, with some other stuff (i.e. don't ask me to do cartwheels :lol:)


The Official video. Myeh. Loved the music, when compared to the original movie. It was a lot more real country music, IMO. The original was homogenized pop, IMO. Not sure what the dancing was about, though. It seemed fairly random freestyle dancing. (Which I actually love and do whenever I have the chance but, when the artist is a serious country artist, I'm not sure this style of dancing fits.)

[Steve Pastor]

Well, Shania isn't exactly a "serious" cw artist, but...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G8bI17_AAc&feature=BFa&list=TLZP5PlsTj47g&lf=artistob
(Haven't seen this for quite a while)
See that walk forward turn right shoulder back move? I use that in "Joe Cuervo" now.
And the steel guitar in this... yeah, I'll take it.
And, hey, come on. Blake did "Hillbilly Bone", "Some Beach" and "The More I Drink", so of course he's "serious". (heh heh!)

Now Reba...
She had a video (they took it off of cmt.com ) to Climb That Mountain with a few guys doing hip hoppy moves.

Free style / hip hop ... country's been updating itself forever.
I'm cool with it.

Seriously, from Bob Wills to Bill Haley to... a lot of country has been about making people want to dance. And dance has come a long way from cotillions and Paul Jones and such.

[pygmalion]

Mmm Hmm, Steve. Absolutely. There's a lot of conversation about what country music really is. A rapper and a country crooner singing a duet is not country to me, but I understand that dance and music both evolve. Maybe I'm too damn old to understand. Entirely possible. :lol:

The official video got on my nerves because the band was doing hard-core, hoe-down, country music my great-grandmom would have loved, while random kids popped and locked. Maybe this is progress. Maybe not. *shrug*

[GGinrhinestones]

If you aren't aware of it, there is a competition going on right now for the best version of the Footloose line dance taught at the Dance Y'All boot camp. I'm not advertising, but you can go to http://www.danceyall.com/throwdown, watch the videos, and vote for your favorite. Some are terrible, some are pretty good, and one in particular is pretty awesome because it combines the line dance with a fair amount of partner dancing and ballroom. I think the entries have closed on this, but the voting is still open until the end of January.

[pygmalion]

Thanks, GG!