Zn
'elamor)

y

Trying country
line dancing
for the
very first time.

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

76

ee--Haaah! You think this is fun-
ny, this yee-haaah thing? It's any-
thing but, especially if you're a serious
country line dancer like me.
Yep-per, been line dancin' for all of one
hour. But I know how to keep my thumbs
in my belt loops, my face straight
ahead. I know a shimmy from a mili-
tary turn. "Yee—Haaah!" That's what
country line dancers say after complet-
ing a song. It's kind of like the "amen" of
the amen chorus.
The dancing reminded me of some of the
Orthodox weddings I've been to: everything
synchronized and the like. But that was
the only thing that country-western line
dancing reminded me of that was Jewish.
This was hardly a .bar mitzvah party. In-
stead of suede yarmulkes, the men were
wearing black cowboy hats with feathers
and silver-and-turquoise trim. The women
were decked out in Western-style shirts
and, like the men, in boots.
I was wearing my University of Michi-
gan maize turtleneck, a blue sweater and
a pair of deck shoes. Yee Haaah!
Listen, it wasn't the Confederate stars
and bars flag on the wall that intimidated
me. Nobody asked me any questions about
auto racing or anything like that. Instead,
it was getting into the very back of the
room when Cowboy Don Fafard and
Kathie Konwinski lined us up and start-
ed teaching the Caribbean Cowboy. That
was intimidation.
It was Sunday evening at 6. The foot-
ball game was on the wall of the bar tele-
visions (appropriately enough, the
Cowboys were playing). The dance floor at
Diamonds & Spurs in Pontiac was packed
with beginners. But some of these begin-
ners danced as if they had been through
this before.
Please, can we stop the story right here

"How many steps do I take
in a two step?" asks Phil
(a.k.a. Fred Astaire)
Jacobs.

and step outside for a minute? I for-
, got to tell you something. I can't dance.
At the Jewish News holiday party
each year, when it comes time to do
the Hustle, a pretty easy line dance, I
invariably step on some poor woman's out-
fit (and that's pretty tough when you con-
sider she's wearing a mini-skirt), get an
angry look from her boyfriend and move
on. I'm the one at the party who takes the
pictures of my colleagues dancing. That's
my role. I accept it.
So here on the Diamonds & Spurs floor,
the goal was to hide. Kathy had us slide
our right foot to the right and slide our left
foot to meet the right foot four times. I can
do that.
She then had us move our left foot to the
left and slide our right foot to meet it. I can
do that.
Then we shimmied, which has some-
thing to do with one's rear end, twice in
each direction. That I can do. -
Military turns. A cha-cha move. We're
facing front, we're facing back. "One morn-
ing sis won't go to dance class. I grabbed
her shoes..." Yeah, right.
Then came the musical accompaniment.