Country Dancing

Our Trip to Tennessee

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Photo by Dori Yez

As I’ve stated in previous articles, please support your local line dance classes; however, I feel it’s also essential to travel to experience various instructors and venues.

In the first week of June, my BRAT (Back Row Assistant Teacher) drove us on a line dance trip to Tennessee. On our first night, we planned to dance at the Electric Cowboy in Johnson City. Unfortunately that venue was permanently closed, even though they gave no indication of that online! Since we traveled over 8 hours to get there, we decided to call it a night and checked into our hotel.

The next day we visited some of her relatives in beautiful Jonesborough before making our way to Knoxville to check out the famous Cotton Eyed Joe club for ladies night. What a great place! For only a $5 cover charge, they offer a free 90 minute line dance lesson, free pitchers of beer (or water) and a free food buffet! We learned 4 dances from Bubba Jones and we spoke with him briefly after class. He was so friendly and happy to meet us; if you travel to that part of the country, plan a night out there. Check out their event schedule at https://www.cottoneyedjoe.com

The rest of our time was spent in Pigeon Forge. There are so many different things to see and do there, it was hard to choose! We took the self-driving tour of Cades Cove and then went on the walking tour of Tuckaleechee Caverns. Both tourist attractions were interesting and beautiful.

Our trip was planned to attend the 10th annual Born 2 Dance line dance workshop, which we did on our final day there. We took a 2 hour class in the morning and another 2 hours in the afternoon. The evening was open dance for 3 hours. During the workshops, we learned 7 dances from 5 different instructors and reviewed 2 other dances we learned at Cotton Eyed Joe. In my opinion, the best instructor was Lisa M. Johns-Grose; her voice and instructions were easy to hear and follow. If you want to find out where she’s teaching, look her up on Facebook.

Since we learned a total of 11 dances, I decided to pick my 2 favorites to share with you; they were both taught at Cotton Eyed Joe and Born 2 Dance. I love each of the songs, which is very important! The first one is a beginner level dance called Country Bump…if you’re new to line dance, try this one! The second one is a 64-count improver level called Lonely Blues. Please see links below for step sheets and demo/tutorial videos:

Country Bump

Lonely Blues

Dori Yez teaches Country Line Dancing on Mondays at Rolling Mills Bar in Girard, Ohio and occasionally on Thursdays at the Landmark Hotel in Mercer, PA. For more information, check out their Facebook pages. Dori also teaches line dance at the Cortland Ohio SCOPE Center on Fridays.

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