Cowboy boots and community: How Black line dancers are kicking up joy

By Patrice Gaines, NBC

When Tamia came across a video on YouTube of people line dancing to her 2006 song “Can’t Get Enough of You,” she and her husband, NBA legend Grant Hill, decided to join in the fun and learn the dance.

Her daughter recorded the couple in 2022 as they celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary with the dance. The R&B star posted their video of the “Tamia Line Dance,” as it’s become known, and soon enough the video caught on, putting the spotlight on line dancing. This decadeslong pastime in Black communities has been celebrated everywhere from weddings to family reunions to impromptu backyard hangs.

“We were kind of having fun and it just turned into this bigger thing,” said Tamia, who calls herself a “very amateur” line dancer. “There’s joy in the learning of line dances. Once you get it, there’s joy in doing it together. It’s an artist’s dream to give people joy. But I’ve been given back joy as well.”

Line dancing has grown in popularity, spurred on by social media, where new steps and songs composed for new dances spread quickly. Posts by people of all ages dancing anywhere from dark clubs to open fields find their way online.

April Berry, a former principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and now a master dance instructor and arts administrator in Pittsburgh, says there is joy in dancing.

“That sense of being together and moving together as one is really where the joy comes from,” says Berry. “When you talk about Black joy, you talk about being motivated, being lifted out of hard times. That’s why people get together to dance.”

“That sense of doing the same steps together, whatever dance it is, creates a sense of holistic well-being,” added Berry. “Dancing together bonds us together.”

Keep reading about line dancing’s potential healing power.

We’ve also seen recent music crossovers with Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album.

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