Après les Clubs de Course, Place À la Danse

While the Charli XCXs of the world make being a 365 party girl look easy, my friends and I recently learned it can’t always be effortless: On a recent Saturday night this summer, four of us found ourselves walking down an eerily silent stretch of Rue Sainte-Catherine Est. If it was a film by the Coen brothers, we’d have arrived upon the upcoming spectacle at the end of a madcap chase. If it was by Greta Gerwig, there’d have been an orchestral swell trailing us.

Instead, the whole thing felt a little Lynchian: Long shadows loomed as we passed a handful of darkened storefronts, wondering what we were missing.

It was only a few blocks on that we rounded a corner and found ourselves suddenly overstimulated by sound and light. A public square reverberated with Spanish-language country covers as line dancers stepped in unison. Too far into their lockstep revelry to join in, we watched them for at least half of what seemed to be a Willie Nelson cover, all the while whispering among ourselves about all the other dancing events we’d been seeing pop up around town. Was this something we’d actually want to try?

With half-formed plans to try an outdoor, all-levels salsa dance class in Verdun sometime soon, we eventually prised our eyes away and wandered on to see what the rest of the night had in store.

Let’s dance

If it felt like we’d stumbled upon a moment that night, it’s quite possible that’s simply because we did: Right now, it seems like there’s nothing Montreal wants more than to cut a rug. From the recent crop of country-western bars where line dancing is as fixed on the calendar as karaoke night, to studios like the body-inclusive Ballet Hop!, a growing, local micro-chain offering a series of beginner-friendly ballet classes, there’s never been a better time to find out whether you really do have two left feet.

The first time Meredith Shedden tried line dancing, it was at Spurs, the queer line-dancing organization that hosts regular pop-up events in Montreal and Toronto.

“I was with a group of friends. And then, they all went outside to smoke, and I found myself alone. And I was so shocked and surprised in a good way that it was so easy to talk to new people, because we had all just done the same thing together, like learned the same dance, maybe messed up the same steps,” she says.

“I could just go over to some group of people and be like: ‘Hey, you guys were awesome at this. I loved how you did that spin.’ There's just a really easy jumping-off point to start new conversations and maybe make new friends.”