Line dancers still cutting a rug in Washington County
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Bob and Mary Hurka line dance for the first time March 13 at Linda Caputo’s line dancing class at Chartiers Community Center.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Linda Caputo leads a Tuesday night line dancing class at Chartiers Community Center.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Don Johnson of Canton Township line dances at Chartiers Community Center in weekly sessions taught by instructor Linda Caputo.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
No shoes, cowboy boots, heels or tennis shoes? No type required when taking a line dancing class with Linda Caputo at Chartiers Community Center on Tuesday evenings.
Dancers of all ages are stepping to modern tunes in order to keep a classic pastime alive.
Line dancing in Washington County may not be what it once was – primarily country music in Western-themed bars – but it’s still enjoyed by many who dance to a variety of music every Wednesday in Chartiers Township.
“Line dancing is my passion, and I’m so happy to introduce it to others,” said dance teacher Linda Caputo of Canonsburg. “Many have picked up my enthusiasm. They are having fun, and that’s my goal.”
Caputo started line dancing about four years ago. She’s a retired legal secretary who took tap dancing and ballet when she was younger. When she gave line dancing a shot, she loved it.
“I had the rhythm, and I could connect with the music,” she said.
She soon started teaching classes at Chartiers Township Community Center. She started off with just a few students in hourlong sessions, but as interest grew, so did her operation. Now, she has 37 people – from teenagers to seniors – participating in her six-week beginner’s class every Wednesday evening.
“Some people come to learn the dances, some come to get exercise and some come for the social aspect,” Caputo said. “The most important thing is to have fun.”
The music she plays during class reaches all generations – pop songs, oldies, country, Latin and soul music. They dance to the classic country dances like “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” as well as the popular songs played at weddings such as “Cupid Shuffle” or “Uptown Funk.”
“People seem to like a variety,” she said. “I have a group of people that love the county. I call them my cowgirls.”
When some of Caputo’s students request a particular song in advance, Caputo will learn the steps ahead of class, then teach them. She goes over portions of the steps, until everyone grasps them, then she turns on the music.
“Once you learn the steps, you kind of put together how they fit into the song,” she said. “Sometimes I will modify a dance to make it less complicated. You can’t get a dance in one time – repetition is key.”
One of the students in her class, Marsha Sams of Washington, has been line dancing for more than 30 years. She moved here from Kentucky three years ago and was looking for something to do.
“Line dancing was pretty much all to country music in Kentucky,” she said. “I had never heard of Pitbull before. It’s good to broaden your horizons.”
Krissie Brownlee of Canonsburg also remembers when most line dancing was done to country music. She’s been dancing and teaching since 1993, and now teaches an intermediate level of line dancing in McMurray.
“There used to be a ton of places to dance in the area and now there’s hardly any,” she said. “It used to be that there was a place to go dancing Wednesday through Sunday, and people had different classes throughout the week. Wherever you went, we all pretty much did the same dances.”
The country dances used to be two-step, partner dances and line dancing, which you could practice on the weekend at local country bars, Brownlee said. But as those venues across the region closed down over time, the dancing also went away.
One of the bars where a “core group of people” danced regularly was called Rodeo, in Greentree. She said when they shut down they went to the Rhythm House Café in Bridgeville, which later closed.
“That turned into a gas station,” she said.
Then they went to the Saddle Ridge club at Station Square, which also closed and is now “a parking lot,” she said. They also used to dance at the Night Light at the Hilton Hotel on Racetrack Road before it closed.
“As more places closed, they found other interests,” Brownlee said. “So they don’t really country dance anymore. Some tried other dances like West Coast swing.”
Brownlee said she seldom does country dancing in the class she teaches. Most of it is Top 40 music.
“I like all music,” she said. “I don’t really know why there was such a shift in songs.”
She said the same reasons that got her into line dancing are what keep her doing it.
“It’s fun, and you make friends along the way,” she said. “I guess a little bit, too, is the challenge, because you have to challenge yourself to learn the sequence of the dance.”