Line dancing has shed its old stereotype and is attracting a new, younger following as social media trends and a resurgence of country-pop lift the dance from village halls to TikTok feeds.
Sixteen-year-old Ava Stratford-Davies, who learned line dancing from her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, now runs her own business teaching three classes a week in Newport, south Wales, and posts video tutorials that have racked up thousands of views online. "Everything is coming off TikTok," she said, adding that dances popular in the United States quickly reach British classes via the platform.
People involved in the pastime say perceptions have shifted dramatically in recent years. For decades, line dancing in the UK was associated with older participants and village-hall culture. Marie Stratford-Davies, Ava’s mother, recalled there was a stigma when she was younger: "When I would go with my mum and I was in high school, you wouldn't tell anyone you were doing line dancing." Now, she and others say the stereotype is breaking.
Natalie Lake, 41, of Neath, said she once would have been among the youngest people in a room at a line-dancing event. At a recent gathering she realised she was the oldest attendee. "It's really nice to see that the stereotype has been broken and that we're not village halls of retired people," she said. Natalie and others point to broader musical trends as part of the change, citing mainstream artists and TikTok dance challenges that have introduced line-dance steps to new audiences.
Line dancing involves people following a choreographed set of steps while arranged in lines facing an instructor. The style has no single origin, drawing on folk dance traditions from Europe and Africa and becoming consolidated within the United States country music scene during the 20th century. Its low-impact nature and the fact it does not require a partner helped its earlier popularity among older participants when it migrated to the UK.
The dance’s most recent boomers point to pop and country artists who have blended genres and pushed country sounds back into the mainstream. Names cited by dancers include Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, and others have mentioned Lainey Wilson, Ella Langley and Maroney as part of a shift away from the rhinestone-and-heartache country stereotype. TikTok trends to songs such as Dasha’s "Austin" and Carpenter’s "Manchild" have also featured line-dance routines that many users have replicated without necessarily identifying them as traditional line dances.
For some participants, community and fitness are key draws. Amy Ray-Jones, 29, from Flintshire, said social media has widened the scope of music used in classes. "We don't just dance to country, which I think is some of the appeal too," she said, adding that she knows dances to non-country tracks such as Pitbull. Amy said the social aspect has been important: "As a woman in her late 20s, it's quite hard to make friends... [but] there's always someone free to dance with. It's honestly the most fun I've had."
Luke Shrimpton, 39, who first encountered line dancing in the 1990s after the hit "Achy Breaky Heart," now teaches four nights a week in Swansea and credits artists such as Post Malone, Shaboozey and Luke Combs with popularising country or country-inspired tracks. "It's just gone from strength to strength," he said. Luke met his wife through line dancing and his three children now take part.
Participants also note the physical benefits. Natalie said she can do about 8,000 steps in two hours at a class and relies on weekly sessions to decompress from a demanding job. "I've done lots of different dancing over the years and there's no community like the line dancing community," she said.
Line dancing has seen revivals before. It enjoyed mass popularity in the 1990s after Billy Ray Cyrus's "Achy Breaky Heart." What is new, those involved say, is the role of short-form video platforms in accelerating trends and exposing young people to routines from other countries almost in real time. Instructors and hobbyists say dances associated with particular tracks allow people to join in at dance halls worldwide once they know the steps.
Despite the revival, instructors say there is still work to make line dancing fully mainstream. Ava said she believes the activity is getting there "one scroll, like and share at a time," while organisers continue to recruit younger participants through school-age classes, social media and mixed-genre playlists.
The renewed interest has practical effects for instructors and venues. Classes that once might have been sparsely attended are now drawing mixed-age groups, and some teachers report increased demand for sessions. As the music landscape continues to blend genres, participants and teachers say they expect line dancing to remain a social form of exercise with a growing, more diverse base of participants.
For a new generation of dancers, the appeal is both cultural and social: a connection to a living tradition that has adapted to contemporary music and technology, and a space for community-building that crosses age groups. Whether taught in a village hall, a community centre or learnt from a phone screen, those involved say line dancing’s steps now point to a broader shift in how people discover and embrace communal pastimes.
