Line dance

A line dance is a choreographed dance where a group of people perform a repeated sequence of steps while standing in one or more lines or rows. The dancers usually all face the same direction, though sometimes they face each other. Unlike circle dancing, participants do not touch one another. Each line dance is typically tied to a specific song and named after it—the Macarena and the Electric Slide (linked to the 1982 single "Electric Boogie") are examples that have remained part of modern American culture for many years. People learn and practice line dancing in country-western bars, social clubs, dance clubs, and ballrooms.

The exact origins of line dancing are unclear. Music historian Christy Lane noted that asking ten people when it began would likely yield ten different answers. Its growth is largely connected to country and western music. Some steps and terms likely came from dances European immigrants brought to North America in the 1800s. Between the 1860s and 1890s, what would become country-western dance began to emerge from those traditions. In the 1900s, U.S. schools added folk dancing to physical education, making folk and country dancing popular social activities. After World War I and World War II, returning servicemen sometimes brought European dances back, blending them into American styles.

One of the first true line dances was the Madison, created and first performed in Columbus, Ohio, in 1957. It became locally popular in Baltimore, Maryland, and caught the attention of *The Buddy Deane Show* in 1960, leading other dance shows to feature it. The 1961 "San Francisco Stomp" also fits the definition of a line dance. During the 1970s disco era, many new line dances emerged, choreographed to disco songs. The "L.A. Hustle," a modified Madison, started in a small Los Angeles disco in summer 1975 and reached the East Coast as the "Bus Stop" in spring 1976. Another 1970s line dance is the Nutbush, performed to Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits." The Electric Slide was created in 1976, associated with "Electric Boogie," written by Bunny Wailer for Marcia Griffiths and released in December 1982. It became popular in Jamaica in early 1983 and gained moderate international success; a 1989 remix reached number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100, helping popularize the dance. The 1977 film *Saturday Night Fever* boosted disco and its dance styles. Line dancing to country music also grew in the 1970s, with the Walkin' Wazi and Cowboy Boogie dating to 1972.

The 1980 film *Urban Cowboy* sparked a trend for country and western culture, including dance, music, and clothing. Over a dozen line dances were created for country songs in the 1980s, many adapted from disco line dances. The Chicken Dance was adopted by the Mod revival during that decade. The music video for Billy Ray Cyrus's 1990 song "Achy Breaky Heart" is credited with launching line dancing into the mainstream. In the 1990s, the Spanish dance song "Macarena" inspired a popular line dance. A line dance for Asleep at the Wheel's 1990 single "Boot Scootin' Boogie" was choreographed by Bill Bader; the 1992 Brooks & Dunn cover led to at least 16 line dances with that title. Billy Ray Cyrus's 1992 hit "Achy Breaky Heart" helped push western line dancing into the public eye. In 1994, choreographer Max Perry had a worldwide dance hit with "Swamp Thang" for the song "Swamp Thing" by The Grid, a techno track that used banjo sounds and started a trend of line dancing to non-country music. Country western music was significantly influenced by line dancing's popularity in the mid-1990s. Max Perry, along with Jo Thompson Szymanski, Scott Blevins, and others, began using ballroom rhythms and technique to advance line dancing. In 1997, the band Steps sparked interest outside the U.S. with the techno dance song "5,6,7,8." In 1999, American reta (the source text cuts off here).