France Regulate Line-dancing.

[Lonestar]

I don't know what's worse: That this has happened or Texas hasn't beat them to it.

dam Sage in Paris

They turn out in their hundreds in Stetsons and boots as hits such as the Crazy Foot Mambo and the Cowboy Strut echo around their village halls.

They are drawn by a love of American culture - although definitely not American politics - and a passion for line dancing, which enables them to swing but avoid all human contact.

Now country and western has become so big in France that the country's bureaucrats have decided to bring the craze under state control.

The French administration has moved to create an official country dancing diploma as part of a drive to regulate the fad. Authorised instructors who have been on publicly funded training courses will be put in charge of line dancing lessons and balls.
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The rules, which come into force next year, come after the rapid spread of country and western in France, where an estimated 100,000 people line dance several times a week. Jean Chauveau, the chairman of the country section of the French Dance Federation, said: “It's growing at a crazy rate. There are thousands of clubs and more are springing up all the time.”

He said the French shunned the square dancing that is popular among country and western fans in the United States because it involved physical contact. “They don't want to take anyone by the hand or anything like that,” he said. But they were passionate about line dancing, where participants follow the steps without touching anyone else. “I think this corresponds to the individualism of our times,” Mr Chauveau said.

Village associations boast dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of members; competitions are flourishing, and a country music festival is expected to draw 150,000 people this summer, he said. “Britain caught the line dancing bug a long time before us, but now we are really going for it,” Mr Chauveau said. “It's complete madness here.”

The majority of enthusiasts in France are women, who leave their husbands and boyfriends in front of the television while they go out for le country. They often spend several evenings a week perfecting steps to the sound of Every Cotton Pickin' Morning, Country Walking or Irish Spirit.

Yannick Bigard, who has been line dancing for four years, told Sud Ouest, her local daily: “I couldn't imagine going without the costume or at least the boots and the hat. I spend my time imagining new choreographies.”

Mr Chauveau said the trend illustrated France's “complicated and ambiguous” relationship with the United States. “We love American magic and the American dream,” he said. “But we hate Americans when we confront the hard reality of their behaviour throughout the world. We go for the cowboy hats but not George Bush.”

In a peculiarly Gallic approach to the phenomenon, French civil servants say line dancing should be submitted to the same rules as sports such as football and rugby. This means imposing training courses for line dancing teachers and a state-approved diploma for anyone who wants to give lessons or run clubs.

Amateur instructors will have to take 200 hours of training under the new rules. Professionals will get 600 hours, including such subjects as line dancing techniques, “the mechanics of the human body” and the English (or at least Texan) language. They will also learn how to teach line dancing to the elderly.

The cost of the courses, about €2,000 (£1,570) for the professionals and €500 for the amateurs, will be largely met by taxpayers. Mr Chauveau said the regulations highlighted the French state's obsessive desire to organise all public activity. “France is the only country in Europe apart from Greece where sport is controlled through the state,” he said. “Line dancing is now considered a sport, so it is being controlled, too.”

Partners in popularity

— Modern line dancing evolved from “contra” dances, popular in New England in the early 1800s and developed from earlier European folk dances

— In the 1970s, the country and western form was developed. It is this form that has global popularity today

— A promotional dance was choreographed for Billy Ray Cyrus’s 1992 single Achy Breaky Heart. The song and the dance went on to become Cyrus’s most popular hit and was one of the bestselling country songs of the 1990s

— The most popular line dances, “the old favourites”, are the “Tush Push”, the “Electric Slide” and the “Boot-Scootin’ Boogie”

— The most common move in line dances is the Schottische: step, cross, step, scoot

I did the "Electric Slide" in grade school gym.

[Rogue 9]

What the fucking fuck? Why the hell does the government need to regulate line dancing? What possible justification can the French government have for this?

[Qwerty 42]

France has always been really anal about their cultural stuff.

Presumably there wouldn't be a criminal penalty attached to line-dancing wrong, it would probably just no longer be line-dancing, at least at first. In a couple years expect the Dance Police to be hiding in the punch bowl.

[Red]

I lol'd.

Because, really, can you really do anything else but laugh?

[Alferd Packer]

Oh, we got both kinds of music. We got Country and Western!

Seriously, what? I just can't wrap my brain around the "why?" Of all the things to emulate, why this?

[Bounty]

What the fucking fuck? Why the hell does the government need to regulate line dancing? What possible justification can the French government have for this?

Because the French don't like it when people market skills they don't have. There won't be a stuffy guv'mint monkey telling you your Yeehaw is off; you just need a diploma that says you are qualified to teach linedancing before people can hire you to teach linedancing. It's overreacting, perhaps, but there's a logic to it.

[Rogue 9]

What the fucking fuck? Why the hell does the government need to regulate line dancing? What possible justification can the French government have for this?

Because the French don't like it when people market skills they don't have. There won't be a stuffy guv'mint monkey telling you your Yeehaw is off; you just need a diploma that says you are qualified to teach linedancing before people can hire you to teach linedancing. It's overreacting, perhaps, but there's a logic to it.

No there isn't. I say again, why does the government need to regulate line dancing? As in, why do they need official government training courses, licenses, and all that? What need is there for it? What significant danger does failing to regulate it pose to the citizens? And if there is some half-assed need besides "We're the government and have to have our fingers in every fucking thing in the country," then is it great enough to justify the expense?

[Dartzap]

Its probably being used to deflect the ire about them joining NATO again

I honestly thought it was going to the Onion this time. Looks like I was wrong yet again, heh

[The Spartan]

What need is there for it?

Just taking a wild ass guess at it: Perhaps they're concerned about people getting "authentic" line dancing instruction and to prevent phonies from teaching people the wrong thing.

Though why you'd want to line dance in the first place is beyond me. I didn't get it when it was popular over here and I still don't. But then, I hate country music, by and large, so I'm not exactly unbiased.

[Bounty]

ncing? As in, why do they need official government training courses, licenses, and all that? What need is there for it? What significant danger does failing to regulate it pose to the citizens?

Apart from protecting people from getting swindled, there's also this:

They will also learn how to teach line dancing to the elderly.

While "death by line dancing" is one of those things you'll probably never hear in a news report, it is a risk for people with rickety hips and bad hearts.

Now, I'm not going to defend the French proposal wholesale, but the idea of regulating the teaching of dance - just you regulate real teaching - isn't without merit. Would I do what the French do? No - I think the French would be much better of with a voluntary certification of some sort, which would weed out the charlatans just as good as this proposal would. but there's a reasoning behind the idea. If people can get conned, or in extreme cases injured, the government has reason to step in.

[Rogue 9]

Well if they get to simply reclassify line dancing as a sport so they can regulate it, perhaps they should classify car burning as a sport; then they can regulate that as well.

[Gil Hamilton]

Wow, you really really care about line dancing, huh?

[Rogue 9]

Wow, you really really care about line dancing, huh?

No, actually; I hate it. I just think that governments have absolutely no business expanding their authority into people's private hobbies. They might as well require licenses to go jogging while they're at it; it would actually make more sense, since at least that has the hazard of risking being run over by cars.

[FireNexus]

The license isn't required in order to line dance, Rogue. It's required to teach the skill for profit. Odd? Yes. Unnecessary? Probably. Unreasonable? Not entirely.

Honestly, the way I read the article I can go out and line dance all I like. You just can't charge me for lessons until you've proven the capability to teach the subject.

[Balrog]

He said the French shunned the square dancing that is popular among country and western fans in the United States because it involved physical contact. “They don't want to take anyone by the hand or anything like that,” he said. But they were passionate about line dancing, where participants follow the steps without touching anyone else. “I think this corresponds to the individualism of our times,” Mr Chauveau said.

Now, perhaps this is just ignorant stereotypes talking here, but when did the French get all pissy about personal space? Or have they always been like that?