Country Dancing

On The Road Again

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For this month’s article, I hit the road again for a quick weekend trip to check out three line dance venues, one in eastern Ohio and two in Indiana. First let me give a shout out to my BRAT for planning the whole trip, driving, and (sometimes) listening to her GPS!! For those of you who don’t know her, that stands for Back Row Assistant Teacher, which basically means that when I need her, she is positioned on the back wall for dancers to follow when they can’t see me. A lot of people would be lost without her, and I am at the top of that list!!

The first night we went to the Yellow Rose Night Club in Dayton, OH for a line dance lesson with Sandra Becknell Hoffman, where she’s instructed for 7 years. After the first dance, Sandy came over to greet us and continued to stop by our table several times throughout the evening to chat. She has been teaching line dance for 22 years and has her own place called Hideaway Acres Dance Barn. For more information, find her on Facebook.

Sandy teaches a 90-minute country line dances lesson every Friday night at the Yellow Rose. We learned 4 dances and then 45 minutes after the lesson was over, the DJ played all 4 songs again, back-to-back, to benefit those dancers who took the lesson. Sandy, like me, finds a challenge in attracting new dancers while retaining the “regulars” and keeping everyone happy with different levels of dances. The Yellow Rose is 18 & over, and as the night went on, the younger crowd took over the dance floor and song requests. Check out the Yellow Rose Facebook page!

The next day we traveled to Indianapolis and that evening started with 3 different lessons (8, 9, & 10 pm) at Saddle Up Saloon and Dancehall with instructor Brenda Crosby. She has a very outgoing personality and we learned 3 dances; unfortunately, I wasn’t able to interview Brenda, as she remained on the floor to dance almost the entire time we were there! I spoke with the DJ, who sent the owner, Carl, to our table. He stressed that their motto is “free and easy” lessons to encourage people to learn to dance and feel comfortable there. He added they have Line Dance Workshops several times a year; please check out the Saddle Up Saloon website for more information.

From there we went to 8 Seconds Saloon where the General Manager, Bill Stamper, greeted us and showed us the layout of this amazing place. He mentioned that a band would start at midnight; until then, the DJ was playing song requests. We saw several different groups of people enjoying the huge dance floor, from line dancing to couples to freestylers. Unfortunately, most of the line dancers left when the band, Bigg Country, started playing; however, we enjoyed line dancing to them! Check them out at bigcountry.com and for upcoming events go to 8secondssaloon.net

Here are links to dances we learned from Sandy and Brenda:

“Things We Do”

“Brown Chicken Brown Cow”

Dori Yez teaches Country Line Dancing on Mondays at Rolling Mills Bar in Girard, Ohio, Wednesdays at Social 45 in Lisbon and Thursdays at the Landmark Hotel in Mercer, PA. For more information, check out their Facebook pages. In addition, Dori teaches line dance at Trumbull SCOPE Centers: at the Niles location on Tuesdays and in Cortland on Fridays.

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