Rhythm!

As you progress from “absolute beginner “ week-one dances, you’ll notice I will start to include different rhythms in your dancing. So I thought you’d appreciate an overview of the four main line dance rhythms - so you will recognise them when you encounter them!

1. “One-step”. This is where we start, there’s one step to one beat. A grapevine is a good example: “vine, 2, 3, touch”. Nice and steady.

2. “Two-step” is similar, but the timing is “slow, slow, quick-quick slow.” Ribbon of Highway is an example of a dance that uses this rhythm, and as it suits many country tracks, you will often see this one danced “out” on dance floors everywhere.

3. Cha-cha. This is counted as “1, 2, 3&4” and it involves syncopation (“three steps into two beats”.) Shuffles (forward or back) and chasses (sideways) are examples of syncopation steps and I try to introduce these gradually after you have mastered your early steps.

4. Waltz. As you know, this uses a “ONE, two three” pattern and it's counted-in using "FOUR five six" rather than "Five, six, seven, eight".

There are others, but these four are the main ones. I hope you find this overview helpful.