Scooter Lee - Cowboy Charleston

The next dance we'll learn is called Cowboy Charleston. This one is so much fun. I know you're gonna love this. It's an easy four-wall, 32-count dance, and it's done to what we call swing music or two-step music. When you're listening for songs, try to pick out ones that kind of have a peppy swing beat, almost like a big band swing. We also call this East Coast Swing. Or you can do this to two-step songs. Now, if you see couples dancing out on the floor and they're doing two-step, or sometimes the DJ may call two-step, then usually Cowboy Charleston will fit to that as well. You'll get more comfortable in picking out the songs as you get more experienced in your line dancing. Cowboy Charleston is the name of the dance, and again, because it's been around forever, it's a classic. We really don't know who choreographed it, but it's great. Let's start with the right foot. We're gonna do a Charleston step, touching that right toe forward, step back with that right foot, and then touch the left toe back and step forward with it. That's your Charleston step, all right, remember? Let's do the touch forward, one, two, and then step back on the three, hold four, touch back with the left foot, five, hold six, touch seven, hold eight, or step seven, hold eight. So the step is actually slow, but the counts are quick. Each step or each movement takes two counts. So let's try it real slow, I'm gonna count it. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Touch, step, touch, step. Notice I'm swinging my arms as I do this Charleston step. So when I touch forward, I'm gonna swing my arms to the right. When I step, I let the arms swing to the left. When I touch, I'm gonna swing the arms to the right again, and then swing the arms to the left when I step. So try it with the arms. That takes a little coordination, one of those things like that. We're gonna touch forward and swing right, swing left, swing right, swing left. It's Charleston step, and I'll count it for you now. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. We'll start out with two of the Charleston steps. Now while we're at it, if you wanna make it a little fancy, you can give it some styling by doing a couple of things. You can swing the leg around and touch, and swing the leg around and step. Do the same thing when you're going to the back. So you have kind of a little bit of a circular movement in the legs as it's coming around. That's kind of how they did the Charleston back in the 20s, 1920s, the roaring 20s as they call it. You can also do it with a little bit of a swiveling mashed potato type of a styling if you want to. This is a little trickier. You may have to practice this a little bit. As we touch, I want you to let your heels twist in. My toes are turned out and my heels are twisted in. Then I'm gonna bring my heels out and put the heels in again when I step. Heels out, heels in when you touch. Heels out, heels in when you step. I know that may take a little practice. That's okay, hang in there. You'll get that, all right? So just try that if you wanna try it with the mashed potatoes back and forward and touch and back and touch and forward, all right? Now remember, that's just for fun. If you just wanna do the basic Charleston, go right ahead, that's fine. The next part, after we've done the two Charleston steps, we're gonna touch right, right, two touches to the right side. And then we're gonna do a vine or a weave type pattern, stepping behind, side, and then crossing in front. Now we're gonna do a touch with the left toe to the left side. Touch, touch again, touch. And we're gonna do that weave or that vine pattern, but we're gonna do a turn at the same time as we do it. We'll step behind, side with a quarter turn, and then forward with the left foot. So it's the same step as we did before, but we're just doing it with a turn so we can face wall two and start the dance from the beginning. So that means you're through, all right? See, that was quick, that's easy. Let's try it, Cowboy Charleston, starting with two Charleston steps. Right toe goes forward first. Ready, go. It's touch, step, touch, step. Repeat it, touch, step, touch. Now two touches to the side. Touch, touch, behind, side, front. Touch, touch, behind, turn and step forward and the weight's on the left foot. And now we're ready to start with the Charleston again. This time I'll count from the beginning of the dance, starting wall two with the Charleston. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six. The side touches, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hold eight, one, two, three, four, five, six. We start again, touch, step, and touch, step. Repeat, Charleston forward and back. Two touches, you can kind of push the arms that way if you want to, and Vine, push the arms left. One more time, it's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, one, two, three, four, five, six. The touch is right, right, back, side, front, left, left. Back and turn, start again, right foot and back. Remember those little swivels? If you want to do that, you can. That's kind of tricky though, all right? Okay, that's Cowboy Charleston. Now remember, if you're not quite ready to do this with music, you can rewind and practice and practice until your heart's content. But if you are ready for music, we're gonna do it right now. So dancers, if y'all are ready, let's take our places. We're gonna be using Scooter Lee's song, Please, Please. This is great, because it's very peppy and upbeat and fun. Cowboy Charleston, here we go, five, six, seven, eight. Touch, step, back, step, touch, step. Right touch twice, do a little Vine. Left touch twice, Vine, and turn. Start again, did you do it? Hang in there, Charleston again. Right touch twice, touch, touch. A back, side, front, touch, touch. Here we go, make sure you swing your arms a little bit. And think Charleston. Right toe twice, left toe twice, touch, touch. Start again, this is one, two, three, four.