Line Dance · Improver

Cotton Eye Joe

Fast, loud, and the whole room joins in.

COTTON EYE JOE -- Line Dance LESSON

We did not make this video — we found the clearest one and linked it. There is no single official version of most line dances, so we are filming the version taught on West Michigan floors with local instructors. Teach it here?

Level

ImproverAdelaine Ade’s sheet

Danced to

Cotton Eye JoeRednex

Structure

32 count4 walls

This version choreographed by

Adelaine Ade

Most standards have been choreographed several ways. The steps below follow this choreographer’s sheet; we credit them and link it rather than reprinting it. Their step sheet on CopperKnob

Why this one is in the library

Near-universal at country nights; 10+ competing versions on CopperKnob.

The cheat sheet

What you are walking into

Fast, loud, and slightly chaotic. More stomping than stepping, and the room tends to whoop through it.

What catches people out

The tempo is quicker than it looks on video. Practise at three-quarter speed before you try it live.

How to get through it

Get the heel-and-stomp rhythm first and let the travelling steps catch up. Energy covers a lot here.

Moves it leans on

Coaster Step Shuffle Kick Ball Change Heel Dig Weave Stomp

These are ours, written for someone who has not danced it yet — not a step sheet. For exact counts, see the choreographer's sheet linked above, or come to a night and let someone teach you.

How it goes

32 counts · 4 walls · Improver

Forty-eight count intro. No tags, no restarts. Faster than it looks on video.

1–8

Walk, mambo, shuffle back, stomp

Walk forward right, left. Rock forward on the right and step back. Shuffle back left. Then stomp your right beside the left twice.

9–16

Toe switches, heel switches, pivot

Touch your right toe out and hold, step it in. Same on the left. Then quick heel touches right and left. Step forward right and pivot a quarter left.

17–24

Touch, kick, behind-side-cross

Touch your right in, kick it out to the diagonal, then cross behind, step side, cross over. Mirror the whole thing on the left.

25–32

Heel grinds and coasters

Rock forward on your right heel, twisting the toe outward to make a quarter turn right, recover. Coaster step. Then the same to the left.

Written in our own words from the most-voted step sheet, so you can read it before you go. It is not the choreographer’s own notation — for that, see their sheet. Most of these dances have several versions; your room may do a different one.

Go dance this week

We do not claim to know which night plays which song. What we do know is where country dancing happens — here are three of the region's nights, and the calendar has the rest.

Stomp
Verified

Friday & Saturday · Mendon