line dancing on wooden floors
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Line dancing guide and resources

ByEmmaT

When I started out line dancing, I followed my previous method I used for remembering moves when learning Ceroc. Every new move I learnt I wrote it down. I do the same line dancing for every dance, but sometimes you can’t remember the whole dance afterwards. So I searched online for line dancing resources, and discovered Copperknob – the line dancing bible of line dancing stepsheets.

I’m one of those dancers who wants to improve and practice, so any line dancing resources I can find, I’m looking them up to use. 

Go directly to:

guide to line dancing

Different learning methods

Every dancer is different. Some people are happy to just go social dancing, pick up dances while at a club night and follow other people.  

Others want to absorb all the information, learn all the dances, and remember the steps.  They’ll be the ones going home and practising so they can progress to harder dances. They might also go to different venues and teachers. Different teachers do different dances, teach differently, and you’ll meet more people to see at social events.

I’m more the latter (in progress). I tend to remember current and repeated dances, but I’m always in awe of people you see who know every dance at a social.  I want to be that person – but crikey, it’ll take a long time given how long it takes for me to get round to learning new dances outside of classes!

I do write down every dance – using the stepsheets, reminding myself via videos online if they’re available. And every so often I’ll go back over a dance at home. When I first started I was practising a lot. Now I have less time, but it’s my new year’s resolution to learn one new dance a week, and keep up the ones I’ve already learnt.

Anyway over to the line dancing resources and websites I’ve found over the past year. This list includes some that have been recommended by other line dancers.

Finding teachers and line dancing lessons

For me the hardest thing about starting line dancing is finding local lessons. Near me, there’s very little going on – and even travelling further afield, everything suitable is on the same Tuesday or Thursday evening.

I searched everywhere online – facebook, google. So many classes are still online but aren’t running, inactive facebook pages or none at all. No websites, or they’re no longer running. Line dance instructors need to get with online methods of communicating their classes (unless they only want small classes run by word of mouth).

By luck someone had shared a link in my local town’s Facebook group and I spotted it there. But since starting and trying to look for extra classes elsewhere, it’s still difficult to find them.

Everything Line Dance is a good starting point for finding (UK at least) line dancing classes.

  • Covered most UK line dance instructors as well as some others from elsewhere. Not everything is up to date – because presumably instructors have to keep their pages updated and don’t. They also run weekenders and workshops for different levels, so worth checking those out as well.
  • Search by county or town, and it’ll bring up by distance everyone in the area, and all their classes by day. 
  • You can click on a teacher for other classes and information. 

You can also find classes on the World line dance newsletter website.

where to dance world line dance newsletter

You should be able to find details of classes and their levels. Some classes you have to book in advance (some even have waiting lists!). Quite a lot (by me at least) are in the day time (great for retirees, rubbish for people who work). Just message them first to check in that classes are still running and whether there’s space before just turning up.

Stepsheets 

While learning in class is great, you might miss a few classes. Or if you move up to the next class level, they may launch straight into dances they know as a warm up.

You might be someone who just launches in and picks a dance up from others. But I prefer (unless it’s a beginner dance), to go away, find the stepsheet and video, and learn it at home. For me it’s faster that way, and I’ve got more confidence I know what I’m doing with the steps.

I find it quite easy to read a stepsheet but I’ve danced a lot before, and our teacher refers to moves by their names – coaster, sailor etc. Sometimes they get more complicated with directions you’re facing, some are more detailed than others.

The stepsheet provides the title of the dance, the music used (and any alternative options), choreographers, number of counts, number of walls and dance level.  

It breaks down the dance into sections (usually 8 counts), with the overview of the 8 counts of steps, then broken out by count underneath.  Tags or restarts are included.

Depending on where you find the stepsheet, you may have demo dance and tutorial ‘teach’ videos included from anyone who submits them. Some are better than others – you’ll get to find your preferred teachers or demo videos.  

Some teachers add stepsheets of the dances they’ve taught to their website to share with their dancers. Personally I’m not keen on the ethics of this. As a creator you want to get the traffic, not the person sharing it – and they shouldn’t be reproducing someone else’s stepsheet. It’s better if the link to the stepsheet is shared instead. This would encourage dancers to explore more dances, and also vote for dances/choreographers they enjoy.  But it is good that teachers encourage their dancers to practice and understand stepsheets.

Copperknob is the go to place to find stepsheets for most people.

  • Sign up and you can create your own lists you can add dances to. I have beginner, improver, intermediate and ‘to learn’.
  • Search by dance or choreographer. 
  • If you know the song but don’t know what the dance is called, you can search for the song and check which dance is the one you want.
  • You can also vote which helps move dances up/down the chart listing. Great for choreographers to get more visibility.
  • When you search you can also sort by star rating, A-Z, and various other types. Look for the most popular dance if you’re looking for one to learn for social events, as that will be the most likely danced.
copperknob screenshot

Bootstepper  is a newer website. I still need to play around with it more to make the most of everything available. Each month there seems to be a new feature launched, so it’s definitely one to keep a watch out for.

With a lot of it automated for choreographers in uploading stepsheets, music recognition ability, and trending dancers, hopefully it means things get updated regularly.

  • Import your lists from Copperknob into playlists on Bootstepper, rather than creating from scratch.
  • Sort your favourite dances.
  • Create groups or community playlists (public or private) with your line dance lessons or friends so everyone can access the dances you’ve learnt.
bootstepper screenshot

Linedancer is a bit dated, and doesn’t have many features. They have top charts for different dances as voted by users – overall and also for classic, established, and vintage dances. And you can add dances to your library but otherwise it doesn’t do much else for me. If you want something more basic then it may do for you..

Basic steps

It’s helpful to know a few steps. If you’ve ever danced before or done aerobics you may know some of them (ie grapevine). If you’re struggling with a particular step, then you can look them up and usually someone on Youtube will have a short guide. Just search the step name you want.  

Otherwise, try Rachel McEnemy on Facebook – she’s working her way through tutorials of all the basic steps.

Other basic step tutorials can be found below.

Step Labs is another resource which covers different dances. Although it’s still quite early in development as I’ve found it’s missing quite a few dances I’ve learnt. But if you like step diagrams for basic steps and timings, this has a different way of looking at them.

Videos

Learning or reviewing a dance you’ve learnt from the stepsheet can be used alongside videos. For tutorial videos of specific dances, I like Dancezing. The tutorials are easy to follow, and there’s an A-Z of line dances on her website too.  

I also quite like Dirt Road Dancing for their demos and tutorials that are easy to follow.

If you’re not sure where to look, check out the different videos on Copperknob or Bootstepper for the dances you want. You’ll work out which video creators are your favourites to subscribe to on Youtube.

Unfortunately, not all choreographers put up their own demo or teach videos. But follow your favourites on social media and they’ll usually share any video demos of workshops they’ve taught. On Bootstepper, choreographers can choose the main video for their dances so you should get their videos/approved ones at the top.

One thing to note if learning a dancing from scratch from a social media video, is that the steps might not be the exact ones from the choreographer. So if you want to dance it in different venues, check the stepsheet. Alternatively the choreographer’s video if there is one to make sure you’ve got the correct steps.

blue cowboy boots on a girl dancing

Music

Without music, where would line dancing be? Many people think line dancing is all about country music, and in some places it still is for the purists. But more people are now doing modern line dancing, which uses any genre of music.

This means more tastes are catered to. But if you’re after a certain genre of music, you’ll likely need to try different classes to find a niche venue who may play more of the tracks you like. Hear popular, trending music, and chances are there’s been a dance choreographed to it.

Often dances may be danced to different tracks (e.g Mamma Maria I’ve danced to 4 different songs so far).

Line dance socials are often request based because they want people to request the dances they know. So don’t be scared to add your favourite dances to the list at the socials you go to.

Shazam app – a lifeline if you don’t know what a song is or the artist. Just tap on it to listen, and the song will pop up and be added to your library. 

DJfeed – one mostly used for socials or by djs (not just in line dancing). DJ Feed helps DJs and organisers request dances from those attending. Dancers can log on to see the feed, what’s been requested, what’s been played from the list etc. It’s a great tool. it’s used at the Oxford Line Dance workshops & socials, which is really helpful to see what others have requested each time. It gives me a guide on popular dances it might be useful for me to learn.

Community and chat

Like most social dancing and local events, social media is the place to be to ask questions, find local dancers and socials, and just generally get involved with the community.

A lot of people who go line dancing say they don’t have Facebook. Which I used to say, until I wanted to get more involved with Ceroc all those years ago. Events are generally posted on Facebook so organisers get a picture of how many people may attend. You can find out about other classes and events.

Once you start talking about line dancing, it’s all you’ll see across your feed. Even if you don’t want to be on Facebook, if you want to get more involved, I’d recommend it if your local venues are on there.

I’ve joined a couple of large line dancing groups on Facebook. One (Line dancers on Facebook!) is largely US focused, but there’s also various worldwide and UK based ones.

Bring the fun is an app for mobile and desktop, focused on the more social side of line dances. You can use it to find line dances to music you hear, create and join in with challenges, and link up with friends. You receive awards for adding dances you’ve learnt, and can create practice and to learn lists.

Technique and tips 

For those who want to progress their dancing. No need to panic beginners that there’s loads of technique in line dancing. There isn’t compared with other more formalised dance styles.

Here’s a couple of videos from teacher and choreographer Jo Thompson Szymanski, on improving dancing.

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Other resources

If you want to know more about stepsheets and the terminology, in particular if you’re starting out with choreographing dances, then the Kickish Language of Line Dance pdf is helpful (if rather long and text heavy) 

Linedancer Magazine has a guide to the different levels and what you may find in each. While line dancing doesn’t have a centralised rulebook, this guide provides an outline of expectations of dance structure for teachers and students.

World line dance newsletter – this website covers so much. There’s a library of dances split by different genres (including contra, Christian suitable, exhibition dances and more), tips and information articles, club and individual teachers’ website links and much more.

You can also vote for your favourite dances each week, and there’s playlists you can use for inspiration. If you can’t get to any events or classes, there’s also an area for virtual tutorials and class links. 

Stock image of 3 hip hop style dancers in Fuego hightop sneakers showing their shoe soles
I wear low top Fuegos to dance in, but anything with a smooth sole goes.

Line dancing blogs 

There aren’t that many line dancing blogs (or any dance blogs as I’ve previously found) around. Most are on instructor’s websites. You might need to dig around if you’re not just after tutorials or dances taught lists. 

Sherry Barrett Art– short easy to understand articles on differences between steps, more detailed technique of steps, and etiquette guidance.

Robin’s Dance blog – a few posts which may help encourage new dancers. 

If you want to look back at old line dancing magazines, Linedancer Magazine has the out of print issues available. Just download the pdf for a little bit of history behind line dancing.

Looking for dance shoes? Find out more about Fuegos which I wear.

If you love any other guides or resources you relied on as part of your line dance journey, let me know.

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