Line dancing has taken over Saturday nights at Mama Ree’s. Dozens of eager dancers learned how to shuffle, stomp and kick in unison with the help of Monument Country Dance Club (MCDC).
MCDC volunteer and founding member Amanda Eastlake said that the group started at CMU in the Hamilton Rec Center. MCDC wanted to be able to teach anyone and since the Rec Center requires a MavCard to get in, they decided to move lessons off campus.
Many of the instructors regularly hung out at Mama Ree’s on the weekends and Eastlake said that the group thought the location could be a good fit.
“They ended up, like, talking to the boss and he was like, ‘I feel like that’d be a really cool idea, like, let’s do it,’ and it kind of just took off from there,” said Eastlake. Mama Ree’s has even made slight renovations to accommodate the size of the line dancing groups.
MCDC is run entirely by volunteers. A group of about 50 participants was guided by five teachers on the dance floor. Eastlake said groups of this size are pretty common and that it only gets bigger as the night goes on.
“Once it gets past 9 o’clock it just gets bigger. I mean they move all of the tables out the way,” said Eastlake. After 9 p.m., Mama Ree’s enforces a 21 and up only rule.
At the start of the class on Saturday, Aug. 30, people of all ages were split into four groups. A volunteer guided each group and took about 45 minutes to learn the sequence.
After the guided segment, the free dancing period started. Dancers mingled with one another while others switched to fast-paced swing dancing. Eastlake said she preferred swing dancing.
She, along with many others, had some time to show off freestyle dance moves in between the line dancing. The swing dancers twirled, flipped and dipped while others were able to take a break.
The mingling would stop abruptly when certain songs started to play, and dancers flocked to the floor to get into position. After a song was over, many people would high-five and praise one another for a job well done.
Nursing Junior Kylie Dionysius (pictured below) has been coming to the line-dancing classes at Mama Ree’s since April. She uses line dancing as a way to let go of the pressures of school during the week.
“This is my escape,” said Dionysius. She said if someone is anxious to show up, all they need to do is grab some friends and just try it. Dionysius said that she was hesitant to get out of her shell at first, but that ultimately, it was worth it.
“This was the first time I ever really line danced, and I was scared to come. But now it’s one of my favorite things to do,” Dioynsius said.
The line dancing classes are completely free and open to all ages. There is no dress code, although many of the dancers wear big belt buckles, pearl snaps and bell bottoms – true to the country aesthetic.
Classes start at 7:30 p.m., and MCDC frequently posts what songs they’ll be using to teach the routines ahead of time on their Instagram @monument_country_dc. MCDC also hosts a swing dancing class at Mama Ree’s on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.
Correction: MCDC reached out to the Criterion to inform us that Amanda Eastlake is not a founding member of MCDC according to actual founder Tyler Thorp.
