It’s not American Band Stand, but Waxhaw Line Dancers (WLD) is steadily making a name for itself, providing locals with a Friday night to remember! Started back in January 2012 by Karen and David Wylde, after relocating from Indiana, they quickly realized that there really weren’t any places nearby to dance. Getting tired of trying to find a place, Karen approached the American Legion building manager to ask if she could host their own, weekly line dancing. Fully expecting it to fizzle out after the first six weeks, no one has been more surprised by WLD’s success than Karen herself!
With $5/person admission, and an average, weekly attendance of 30 people, it’s a healthy crowd of enthusiastic people, looking to have a good time. Proceeds go towards renting building space, but Waxhaw Line Dancers has also managed to donate approximately $1200 to charity this year alone.
The weekly format for WLD is to start with some warm-up dances, offer up a lesson of the night’s choreography where steps are easily called out on the floor, and then have free dance for the duration. And lest people think it’s just country line dancing, Karen assures that’d be a mistaken assumption. “We try to teach what’s popular, the latest, top dances to the likes of Lady Gaga and Megan Trainor, as well as the classics like Push, Push, Boot scoot and Boogy, Watermelon Crawl, Bartender’s Stomp, and the Wobble,” says Karen.
Karen estimates they’ve taught attendees over 200 dances in the last seven years, and there’s always something new to introduce! Choreographers all over the world are constantly coming up with new line dancing to new songs, with a thriving world line dance community working concurrently to foster the activity. Workshops are held throughout the country, in which Karen and other participants frequently attend to learn new choreography, and then come back to teach others what they’ve learned. Charlotte will be hosting a Big Bang Dance Classic in January, offering over 60 hours of workshops, hosting choreographers and dance lovers, alike, from all over the world. And in May, Karen and friends will travel the Line Dance Marathon event in Raleigh where attendees expect to dance all through the night, or as long as the DJ holds out!
Karen works hard to create a welcoming and friendly community at WLD. Every week, she provides a link to each dance on their website, waxhawlinedancers.com, and that dance is then taught for three weeks in a row till mastery. New attendees can also view previous linked tutorials to view past dances, or simply show up on Friday nights from 7-10 pm and pick it up as they go!
