The antidote to the social-distancing doldrums may very well be social-dancing lessons, and for that, one needs to look no further than Friday night country line-dancing classes at the Southampton Cultural Center.
Just ask Kathy Helstowski of Bridgehampton, for whom the lessons have been a lifeline over the last several months. "It's exercise, it's learning something new, and it's getting out of the house during the pandemic!" she said during a recent class.
The classes are taught by Natalie Boyle, who grew up tap-dancing and later took up traditional Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and German clogging before coming to country line-dancing about eight years ago. Now, she offers classes from Malverne to Southampton.
"When I found line-dancing, I thought, this is modern and fun," Ms. Boyle said. She had been listening to country music for years, "but I didn't know there was dancing to go with it. I just love all the choreographed steps -- I put my own groove into it."
Indeed, with names like heel hooks, toe struts, knee hitches, and shuffles, the steps are fast, peppy, and heel-tapping happy -- so much so that on a recent Friday night, another student, Katherine Persky of East Hampton, easily convinced a sitting visitor to try out the moves.
"I fell in love with it right away. It's challenging, yet fun," Ms. Persky said. "If you can walk and count to eight, you can do it."
Cowboy boots are part of the culture. Ms. Helstowski looks hella cute in hers; she has "a whole wardrobe of boots" to choose from, including a favorite pair she's had for 32 years and many purchased at the Go West! store now located on Sunrise Highway in Bohemia. It's preferable to wear boots, Ms. Boyle explained, because "they slide and move better" than sneakers. "They're made for line dancing, plus it's the style."
Ms. Boyle's classes become an education in country music, too, as her fiancé and assistant teacher, Michael Perticone, handles the playlist and technical aspects of the class. Ms. Boyle patiently breaks down the steps for her students before Mr. Perticone plays the songs. Each week the class goes through six or seven different pieces of choreography.
There's a dance to go with just about every well-known country tune. The songs have names like "It Ain't My Fault," "Wagon Wheel," "Beer Money," "Tush Push," and "Fireball," and if you weren't a country music fan before Covid-19 hit, well, maybe you are now. Country music boomed in popularity during the pandemic. Bloomberg News cited Billboard chart data in reporting that the genre rose in popularity by between 11 and 22 percent in the first half of 2020 alone, measured in more online song-streaming, country album sales, and radio requests.
In talking about the wide appeal and versatility of the dance form, Ms. Helstowski said she's part of a group called the Country Crazies, about 200 line-dancing fans who have a running challenge with a particular rock band. "They try to come up with songs that we can't dance to," she said, "and they haven't been able to."
Ms. Boyle's classes start at 5:30 p.m. and run for 75 minutes. The cost is $25.
At the end of class, Ms. Boyle and her students were buzzing over a live performance by the Brothers Osborne coming up in Brookhaven on Aug. 21. Tickets are on sale now.
"All I want to know is," Ms. Boyle said, "can we dance?"
This story has been updated since it first appeared in print.
