WRIGLEYVILLE — Country fans looking to star in their personal, Southern version of "Footloose" now have a local place.
Old Crow Smokehouse, 3506 N. Clark St., is hosting country line dance classes starting Wednesday night, with a barbecue buffet beforehand.
An instructor from May I Have This Dance, a Jefferson Park studio, will be leading the way, and as studio manager Holly Gilchrist describes it, country line dancing is pretty much a country version of "Footloose."
"It's what you would see in bad movie parodies of a Western club," Gilchrist said. "It's a bunch of people in rows doing line dances and slapping the fronts and backs of their feet."
Serena Dai introduces DNAinfo Radio to a new place to partake in country line dancing:
Might sound silly, but country line dancing has actually become quite popular in the Chicago area, she said.
While the studio has always offered line dancing, more and more bars and festivals have been asking for country line dancing lessons at their events in the past few years, she said.
Unlike partner dancing, line dancing relieves any discomfort people have with dancing with other people, or trying to find a partner, she said. There doesn't have to be any gender balance, and there doesn't even have to be dancing skill, she said.
Line dancing in the grown-up world is mostly about having a big party.
"It’s a fun thing to do," she said. "You don’t have to be anything but a beginner dancer."
Instructor Jenny Nightingale will be teaching dances to songs like the Billy Ray Cyrus classic "Achy Breaky Heart," Laura Bell Bundy's "Two Step," and Tim McGraw's "I Like It, I Love It."
Classes may continue on future Wednesdays, as well.
Tickets to the class alone cost $15. For $35, attendees also get the barbecue buffet.
