Transcript
“Hi, my name is Robert Royston. I’m a five time world champion of country dance, working with artists like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley. I really hope that you learn how to line dance and experience what it’s like to move to America’s music, and that’s country music.
So, one of the dances that you must learn, and it’s really called round dancing, what we’re doing, what we’re about to do, because it goes in a circle but it’s a set piece of choreography, a lot like line dancing. But, no matter where you go in the United States, if you’re going to a place that does line dancing, they’re probably going to do the Cotton Eyed Joe. The Cotton Eyed Joe is a dance that you can do with a partner, you could have somebody alongside you, or you can do it by yourself, or you can do it in rows of people. Sometimes you’ll have rows of eight or nine people, all shoulders around each other, doing the Cotton Eyed Joe.
Cotton Eyed Joe has two variations that I’ll show you. One is stomp, just a stomp stomp. Kick the same foot back up with the triple step, triple step. Then, same thing with the other foot. Stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Yeah, so that goes one, two, a three and four. Five, six, a seven and eight. One, two, a three and four. Five, six, a seven and eight.
The variation, depending on the region you are in, to that, is that instead of a stomp, they do a touch. They go touch across, touch, kick, triple step. Touch, kick, triple step. Touch, kick, triple step. Touch, kick, triple step. So depending on the variations so you can see that in the front, I’ll either cross my foot over, then kick, then back up. Cross, kick, triple step. Cross, kick, triple step. Or, I’ll stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step.
I tend to like to make a lot of noise so I do the stomp.
Then what you’re going to do after the final triple, you’re going to do eight counts of a shuffle, which we’ve learned in another series here in the line dance series, is a shuffle step, shuffle step, shuffle step, shuffle step. You’re going to do eight counts of that. So you’re going to go one and two, three and four, five and six, seven and eight and it starts over. One, two, a three, and four. Five, six, a seven and eight. One, two, a three, and four. Five, six, and then you shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle and start it over.
And again, lines of people. The more people in there the more fun it is. Or, you can do it by yourself, cruise around the floor, see other people in a line, hook on up and do the Cotton Eyed Joe.
We’re going to do this to music right now.
Five, six, five, six, seven go. One, two, triple step. Triple step, stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick and here we go. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.
Stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, and stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Stomp, kick, triple step. Shuffle, shuffle. I’ll do the other variation. Touch, triple step, touch, kick, triple step. Touch, kick, triple step. Touch, kick, triple step. And shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. And it repeats itself.
And there you have the Cotton Eyed Joe.
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