Line dance

A line dance is a formation dance in which a group of people dance in a line formation or in lines, and they all execute the same dance moves individually.

Terms

Count

A dance will have a number of counts, for example a 64-count dance. This is the number of beats of music it would take to complete one sequence of the dance. This is not necessarily the same number of steps in the dance as steps can be performed on an and count between two beats, or sometimes a step holds over more than one beat.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Step

A dance is made up of a number of movements called steps. Each step is given a name so teachers can tell dancers to perform this step when teaching a dance. The most well-known is the grapevine (or vine for short), a four-count movement to the side.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tag

A tag (or bridge) is an extra set of steps not part of the main dance that are inserted into one or more sequences to ensure the dance fits with the music.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Basic

A Basic is one repetition of the main dance from the first count to the last not including any Tags or Bridges.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wall

Each dance can be described to consist of a number of walls. A wall is the direction in which the dancers face at any given time, which would be the front, the back or one of the sides.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• A one-wall dance would mean that at the end of the routine, the dancers would be facing in the same direction as they had started and so each sequence would repeat exactly the same.
• A two-wall dance would mean the start of each routine alternates between two walls (almost always the front and back walls)
• A four wall line dance is one in which at the end the whole routine of dance moves, the dancers turn 90 degrees, so that they would face all four walls in turn during four repetitions of the routine.