Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993 TAG: 9310210126
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But they're not at the mall to shop, or to take in a movie.
They're here to dance.
Clyde Walters is here to teach them.
"If people want something fun to do, that's good exercise and something that couples can do together, dancing is the best thing," he said.
Long before Billy Ray Cyrus donned his first sleeveless shirt and gyrated to the thumping rhythms of his Achy Breaky Heart, people around the nation were line-dancing to their favorite country crooners.
But although there have always been nightspots around the New River Valley where country music fans could kick up their boot heels, there were no places to learn the moves.
Not any more.
"There are plenty of instructors now that dancing has become so popular," Walters said. "It's a fun thing more than anything else."
The dances, which involve a number of people standing in a line and dancing in coordinated steps, have become so popular that hundreds filled the New River Valley Mall front lawn on a sunny mid-September day for a three-hour hoedown that included food, a band, dance lessons and the longest recorded line-dance in the world.
Armed with only a microphone, Walters gave the first lesson - a popular dance called the "tush push" - amidst a chorus of hoots, hollers and rebel yells from the line-dancers and line-dancing wannabees.
He scooted across the stage slowly and gracefully, in full control of his movements, unlike many of the nervous pupils who followed him step-by-step.
And before it was all over, 194 people standing in a line measuring over more than feet pushed their tushes for what Walters claimed was a world record.
Walters said the sudden explosion of popularity in country music and line-dancing is only the beginning.
"It's like old time rock 'n' roll," he said. "It's here to stay."
Walters said in addition to being easy to learn, line-dancing is "one of the best aerobic exercises you can do," with certain fringe benefits for male dancers.
"If the men knew what I did, there would be a lot more of them out here," he said with a laugh, pointing out the high ratio of women to men among the dancers.
Walters, who was born in Christiansburg and lived in Texas for 20 years, is a longtime country-music fan who was line-dancing in Texas long before the craze made its way to the New River Valley.
He said that when he first came back to the New River Valley seven years ago, he saw there was a need for more country dancing opportunities.
"In the beginning, there were very few instructors in the area," he said. "I started just assisting at first and then it grew from there."
Walters, who said he knows more than 100 different line- and couples-dances, said it grew to the point that he now teaches line-dancing around the New River Valley about 30 hours per week, in addition to working his full-time job as a maintenance planner for New River Castings.
And he doesn't plan on slowing down.
In addition to teaching classes, Walters said he and the other line-dancers in the area hope to perform at events like the festival that took place at the New River Valley Mall.
"We love to do this, especially for charity organizations," he said. "We're not in it for the money; we're in it for the fun."
For information on future events or dance lessons, call Clyde Walters at 381-6923.
by CNB