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Hoedowns For Country Towns
Two country girls boot-scootin' for rural charities
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01 | When was the trip?
The 'Hoedown lap' was from March to December 2022. We travelled across seven states and were on the road for a total of 273 days. We spent the time calling our secondhand and fitted-out Toyota Prado home, yet were fortunate enough to have people right across Australia welcome us into their homes, giving us spare beds for a night or two.
We raised a total of $38,250 for the seven charities we supported (one for each state).
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Why did you do it?
We wanted to give rural communities a reason to smile after a tough couple of years, and we knew bootscooting could be a wonderful way to bring towns together for something a little bit different. We also knew if we didn't do this in our mid-20s, we never would, so we threw caution to the wind, planned the whole trip over Sunday 8am Facetime meetings, quit our jobs, and made a go of it.
As Kate always says, you won't know if you can fly unless you take the leap, and as Claire always says, those who believe they can turn their dreams into reality, are the ones who do. If you've got a passion and a dream, just do it!
03 | How many people attended your classes?
We ran 75 events in total, with our attendances ranging from 1 to 104 people. The youngest member on the dance floor was six weeks old (obviously being carried) while the oldest was 94. We estimate that we boogied with 2800 people in total, who ranged in dance ability from those who had never danced before, to those who had previously won national line dance championships.
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The trip is over - what now?
In terms of what’s next for us, 2023 will be a year of focusing on things further up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs than just the base layer of ‘food, shelter, water’, which has been the main focus in 2022. Kate is headed to Rockhampton (Qld) to work as an agritech education officer for Central Queensland University, while Claire is moving to Melbourne and has a few potential leads to chase up, hoping to combine journalism, line dancing, events management, and charity work. We’ll also get to work on writing a book, although we each have a fair few days of our respective diaries to catch up on before we start on that project (detailed phone notes to the rescue here).
As for Hoedowns For Country Towns, the bulk of the venture is over, but we have a few ideas floating around of how we can continue bits and bobs sporadically in the future… more on that later. While the hoedowning is finishing, if your town/organisation would like us to come to you for a specific, existing event, it's worth getting in touch with us - we may be able to swing it.
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How many different line dances are there?
Over 131,000... and counting! Generally, a specific line dance is written to fit to a particular song, although in many cases, the dance steps fit to many other songs as well. There are line dance choreographers across Australia and all over the world creating new line dances for varying levels of ability, all the time. A comprehensive database of line dances is available on the CopperKnob website, with instructional step sheets, demo videos, and step by step videos also available on the site.
Like anything, line dancing gets easier the more times you do it, but we believe it's easier than other forms of dancing, because:
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The timing is often quite basic
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It isn't a partner dance, so you don't have to worry about what anyone else is doing
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It's repetitive, in that you dance a sequence facing one wall, then turn to the next and do it again. So while you might be a bit rusty on the first few walls, you'll very likely be into the swing of things after you've completed the sequence four or five times
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It's quite stationary, in the way that many dances, especially beginner ones, actually don't require you to move large distances across the dance floor, with moves instead being mostly on the spot
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There are people all around you to watch. If you aren't feeling confident, head to the middle of the dance floor, that way whichever way you turn, there will always be someone in front of you.
And if you still don't think you can line dance, have you ever done the Nutbush? If you have, you've line danced - and trust us when we say there are many line dances far easier than that!
There are line dancing groups all over the place - many rural towns have them. A google search of your town name followed by 'line dancing' might just be the best bet to find your closest group. Existing groups are always delighted to welcome new members.