How to Dance a Gay Country Two Step

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Follow these simple steps

• Attend a gay country bar/club regularly. In San Francisco: Sundance Stompede; NYC :Big Apple ranch; LA: Oil Can Harry's. Even if you are clueless at the beginning, it is a way to check out of you like the scene, the ambience and the people.
• Be friendly - in Country, the attitude is friendly.
• Take some two-step lessons, the rhythm is very simple: quick, quick, slow, slow - basically walking to music. Group lessons are a great place to start.
• Swallow your pride and ask someone to dance and begin dancing. A good place to start is as a follower. Tell your partner that you are a beginner.
• If you are determined to go as a lead, and don't know anything more than the basic, do the basic. Try not to bump into any couples. If you do, apologize. When dancing try and see whether your partner is enjoying it. Think of their enjoyment, not yours. If you don't know any cool moves, try some conversation, most people like it and distracts from the fact that you don't know what you are doing.
• If someone asks you to dance, say yes, unless you really really don't want to. It only lasts 3 minutes after all.
• Don't dance every single dance. Hang out sometimes. You can even learn some stuff by watching others do their moves.
• Don't always ask other people to dance, wait to be asked every now and then. It's good to build up a fan base if possible.
• Dress country but maybe not all the time. It can be hard to do moves in a hat. Maybe save the whole enchilada for every now and then.
• Try and develop your country style, not someone else's. Are you trailer trash, tiara country? or South Carolina Tennesee run? or a country dude who looks like they come to a bar once a year? Dress so that you like it and feel good in it, don't dress in the style you think others like.
• Make a decision about line dances. Are you going to get into that? They can make you look better or worse. Same as the outfit, do the ones you like, not the ones you think are cool.
• Take a private dance lesson from a professional every now and then, just to get a reality check on your dancing abilities. You may not be as cool as you think. Its expensive, around $60 an hour, but usually much more specific and helpful than a group lesson.
• Consider finding a dance partner to take private lessons with and do social dancing.
• Don't do all your dancing in just 1 club, you will learn only the quirks/habits/style of that club. Check out the straight scene and progressive two-step.
• Learn some West Coast Swing, it can help your country.
• Gay country two-step - suprise suprise - involves a lot of dancing with someone of the same sex, which in terms of dancing and executing moves begins to play a factor. You will quite often be dancing with a partner who can be pretty much the same height and weight and strength as you. This doesn't happen as much in straight dancing.
• Like many other dances, your feet almost always stay under your body. This sounds obvious but it's easy to get carried away and start kicking them out here there and everywhere, making you the "psycodancer/the guy to avoid on the floor."
• If you do have to Grandstand, go into the center of the floor, Country two-step goes in an anticlockwise progression and the outside dancers can and do progress quite fast. Grandstanding is a bit rude, but if you feel the need, at least head into the center where you don't stop all the traffic.
• If you are one of the fast dancers, don't tailgate a couple who is grandstanding or going slow, you may think that by tail-gating you are getting the message across that they are slow and that you are not, but the more obvious message is that you don't have enough floorcraft skills to get around them by yourself or don't have any alternate fun moves to deal with a momentary hold up.
• Sounds obvious but you gotta listen to the music, there are levels of being on the beat. Especially if you start getting better and want to do fast moves being on the beat and not "a bit too early" or a "bit too late" can make all the difference.
• Get to know your weaknesses, you may need a dance teacher to spot them - are you too early? too late? poor frame, poor partner awareness? Yes you do have a weakness, everyone does.
• Which brings us to "be aware of your partner"

Things You'll Need

• At least one good cowboy outfit, comprised of jeans (tight), cowboy shirt, boots, belt buckle and perhaps a hat. Go all out, you don't need to wear it all the time.
• If you really dance a lot, consider comfortable clothes rather than tight clothes.

And finally

• Remember the main enemy of being and looking like a cool country (or any other) dancer is panic. Don't panic - never panic, always remember the basics: quick, quick, slow, slow. In times of potential panic, stick with your basics.

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