Line dancing is making a comeback

TORONTO — On a sunny afternoon, a sleepy street in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood transforms into a sidewalk hoedown as Donna McDougall leads a crew of dancers through a country-western routine of shuffles, swivels and scuffs.

“Sometimes, I get fancy,” McDougall demonstrates for the class, her sneakers spinning across the pavement. “I do the odd twirls, but you don’t need to do that.”

Veteran boot-scooters and beginners alike are welcome to join McDougall’s daily onehour line dancing sessions, so long as you can find a spot where you can weave back and forth while maintaining a two-metre distance from your neighbour.

Since COVID-19 has restricted gatherings and activities, some Canadians are taking up line dancing as a form of group fitness, which by tradition limits physical contact between participants.

“There’s a lot of people struggling with various things (like) isolation or loneliness,” McDougall, 65, said in an interview.

“And for that one hour a day, I know this is making them happy.”

McDougall, who has lived in the west-end neighbourhood for more than three decades, typically teaches line dancing class once a week at her local YMCA, but classes were cancelled in mid-March because of COVID19 measures.

Over a virtual coffee chat, she and her neighbours discussed ways they could help older and isolated members of the community. Someone suggested McDougall take her line dancing classes outdoors, but idea of synchronized sidewalk performances struck her as potentially “hokey.”

Eventually, she decided to give it a shot. She started sending out virtual invites in late March to a select group of friends and neighbours, enlisting her husband to act as “traffic cop” as she broke down basic moves from grapevines to K-steps.