“Onerous occasions require livid dancing.” – Alice Walker
Welcome to the season of line dancing, the place Black Music Month meets Juneteenth meets each yard cookout from D.C. to Decatur. Whether or not you’re in it for the cardio, the group, or simply making an attempt to not be the one sitting down through the Wobble (once more), line dancing is the joyful motion we all the time want. And this summer time, we’ve acquired one other addition to the playlist: “Boots on the Floor” — a fierce, fan-filled routine that’s acquired the aunties and Gen Z out right here getting in formation.
However first, a bit of context.
We Been Doing This: Line Dancing Has African Roots
Synchronized group dancing didn’t begin with TikTok or YouTube. Throughout the African continent, dance has lengthy been a device of unity, communication, and celebration. Many conventional dances have been carried out in traces or circles with communal rhythm and repetition designed for connection, not competitors. That spirit survived the Center Passage and was reborn in ring shouts, juke joints, and soul prepare line-ups. Our our bodies bear in mind. Each “left foot stomp” is ancestral.
Boots on the Floor: The Summer time 2025 Hit
“Boots on the Floor,” the track by artist 803Fresh and the choreography by Tre Little , is sweeping by means of reunions and line dance courses nationwide. With colourful followers and daring strikes, this line dance brings aptitude, enjoyable, and a bit of drama to the dance flooring. Want a tutorial? Line dancing extraordinaire Terressa on YouTube has a step-by-step tutorial. There’s nonetheless time to observe earlier than your cousin’s marriage ceremony or the neighborhood Juneteenth block occasion.
The Line Dance Timeline:
Right here’s a fast tour of a few of the most beloved line dances and once they hit:
Electrical Slide – 1976: Created by Ric Silver, this traditional went viral earlier than we had the web.
Cha Cha Slide – 2001: DJ Casper had us sliding left and criss-crossing from school campuses to golf equipment to church basements.
Cupid Shuffle – 2007: Cupid gave us directions, and we adopted. A marriage reception staple.
Wobble – 2011: Irrespective of how small the group, if this comes on, it turns into a dance flooring.
Tamia Line Dance (Can’t Get Sufficient) — 2012 (dance popularized): It’s acquired spins. It’s acquired soul. And it snuck up on people who didn’t realize it was a full exercise.
Jerusalema – 2019: This South African gospel influenced home observe impressed a dance problem that introduced the world to its ft through the international pandemic.
Texas Maintain ’Em – 2024: Beyoncé mentioned, “This Ain’t Texas,” and her line dance introduced all the parents to the yard.
Boots on the Floor – 2025: It’s a sensation! “The place them followers at?”
Why Line Dancing Heals Us
Line dancing is cardio with the group. It’s acceptance with out judgment. You don’t want a associate. You don’t even want rhythm (however we consider in you!). It’s about transferring from the nook to the middle, from stress into sisterhood, from not understanding to “I acquired it; now let me add some razzle dazzle to it. Each synchronized step is a small act of liberation and an unlimited show of pleasure.
Dancing is simply soothing to my soul.
Tre Little, Boots on the Floor choreographer
Get to the Dance Flooring
So go on, ship a message within the group chat. Arrange that lounge observe session. Present up on the cookout prepared. Whether or not you’re first in line or studying within the again, we’re all on this collectively. As a result of the one factor higher than dancing by means of the laborious occasions… is doing it alongside the individuals you need to really feel beloved, lifted, and overjoyed.
Tracy Chiles McGhee is a multi-genre author and the Constituency Engagement Supervisor for Unerased | Black Girls Communicate.
