If you are a newcomer or a beginner, you might feel overwhelmed by the number of different dances we do every night. You might be wondering “where do I start?” Nobody can learn all of the dances right off the bat; learning the steps takes some effort and practice.

Remember that everyone was new once, and we all have to take the time to come up to speed. Just stick with it and soon you will know a lot of dances.

If you like a particular dance and want to study it, ask someone for the name of the dance. We have stepsheets for many dances. You also can search online and find the stepsheets and videos for many dances. Having the name of the dance choreographer will help. Our Stepsheets and Videos Page lists several searchable stepsheet libraries.

One of the best YouTube channels to learn line dances is Jenny. She has several channels with thousands of videos each with a demo and a lesson: LineDanceDallas3 and LineDanceDallas5 
For couples dances, Alan and Sonia have a very good channel.

A suggestion for new line dancers: just try!

The best way to learn is to try!  Dance in the middle of the floor so that people surround you on all sides. This way, if you are trying to follow someone who knows the dance, when the dance faces a new wall, you still will have someone to watch in front of you. If you start at the edge of the floor, once you change walls, you won’t have anyone dancing in front of you anymore.

Young dancers learning while dancing

Couples dancers: circle up!

Couples dance in a circle on the periphery of the dance floor.  Couples dances such as two-step and waltz are “lead and follow” dances. One partner leads the other partner into various moves without following a set pattern. In “pattern” or “specialty” dances such as El Paso and Wooden Nickel, the dancers follow a choreographed sequence of steps that repeats throughout the song.

Dances popular at NVCWDA

Below, we’ve listed some dances we do at many NVCWDA dances to help you focus your early efforts. If you look at the stepsheets and videos, you can study the moves and practice in private beforehand. Then at our dances, you will have an idea how to do several dances for various songs each night.

When dancing, we observe a courtesy called “dance floor etiquette” to avoid conflicts and collisions with fellow dancers! Please incorporate dance floor etiquette into your dancing. Thanks.

Line dances

• Recent dances:
  • Give me Shivers – Stepsheet | Video
  • After the Rain – Stepsheet | Video
  • Some Kind of Wonderful – Stepsheet | Video
• Popular:
  • Lonely Drum – Stepsheet | Video
  • Rockin’ the Wagon Wheel: Stepsheet | Video
  • Mambo Shuffle – Stepsheet | Video

• Some oldies:
  • Country Two Step – Demo | Step sheet | Example songs: Suds in the Bucket, Just to See You Smile, Long Black Train
  • Waltz Across Texas – Demo | Step sheet | Example songs: Waltz Across Texas, Their Hearts are Dancing, Could I Have This Dance
  • Cruisin’ – Demo | Step sheet | Example song: I Should Have Been True
  • Tush Push – Demo | Step sheet | Example songs: T-R-O-U-B-L-E, Get Over It

Couples dances

• Two Step – Demo
• El Paso – Demo | Step sheet | Example songs: Neon Moon, I Just Want to Dance With You
• Wooden Nickel – Demo | Step sheet (NVCWDA variation: We start at step 25 with the chasse forward, not at step 1 with left forward.) | Example song: She’s in Love with the Boy.

(The El Paso and Wooden Nickel can be done as a single as well.)