MYSTERY OF THE TEXAS TWOSTEP

CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN:

EVOLUTION

Written by Rick Archer 

THE EVOLUTION OF TWOSTEP AND POLKA

On my way home from Cowboy, I could barely control my anticipation.  Melanie had confirmed my Twostep-to-Polka conversions had been new to her.  In addition, once I figured out what I was doing, she began to like them.  My fear had been that women would object to the increased complexity.  Thank goodness Melanie had suggested just the opposite.  She confirmed that she enjoyed trying new patterns.  It crossed my mind that this had always been true for new Disco patterns.  I had spent two years making up new moves for my advanced Disco classes.  Why would it be any different for Western patterns?  I decided that women who are good dancers like a challenge.  If a boy can keep a girl on her toes, that's the fun of following.

What made these moves 'new'?  First I had used Ballroom Foxtrot patterns converted to Twostep.  Now I intended to take those same Foxtrot patterns and convert them Polka, thereby doubling my material.  I doubted there was a single man at Cowboy who had ever taken a Ballroom lesson in his life.  Why not?  'Ballroom Dancing' was not considered masculine.  Any self-respecting cowboy caught taking a Ballroom lesson would be considered gay or unmanly.  However, in a strange way, this might work in my favor.  If my reasoning was correct, the inherent prejudice against Ballroom dancing gave me exclusive rights to this untapped gold mine. 

I shook my head in wonder.  Who would have ever guessed that Ballroom dancing, something I had long been prejudiced against, would save my Western career?  Sensing the irony, I frowned and smiled at the same time.  Ballroom dancing?  Who would have though?  First I warmed up to Western, now I was warming up to Ballroom.  Something must be really wrong with me.  Such are the dangers of becoming open-minded.

I reached three conclusions.  First, after a solid hour of watching the dancers at Cowboy, I had seen nothing new.  Second, I had a strong hunch I had just cooked up a set of patterns that had never seen the light of day on a Country-Western dance floor.  But it was the third conclusion that blew my mind.  I had just decided the only way to extend my career was to invent new Western patterns.  How else was I going to survive?  Instead of wasting my time looking for patterns that did not exist, why not explore the body of existing knowledge in Ballroom for new ideas?  What other secrets might lie in my untapped gold mine? 

Now my mind drifted to the moral dilemma.  Did I have the right to do this? 

"Texas women have been dancing backwards for 100 years and we see no compelling reason why that has to change!!"

If I went ahead and passed off my converted Twostep patterns as 'legitimate' Polka patterns, I would have enough material to flesh out my Intermediate class.  However to do so would alter the way Twostep and Polka were currently being danced here at Cowboy by the majority of the men.  There were two ways to look at this.  On the one hand, I was surely violating the Traditional style of Twostep and Polka.  Where did I get the nerve to tinker with a style of dancing that was admittedly foreign to me?  I was an outsider, a city boy, someone who had no business altering the fundamental DNA of two dances based on 100 years of Texas Tradition.  Here I was, a Johnny Come Lately who had been Western dancing four times in his life.  Now I was considering altering the very nature of how my students danced the Twostep and Polka.  Who did I think I was?

On the other hand, as things stood, there were no new moves out there waiting to be discovered.  A solid hour of watching couples dance here at Cowboy tonight convinced me I had seen everything the original style of Western dancing had to offer.  Standing pat offered absolutely NO HOPE.  My only chance to overcome the lack of Western material was to come up with my own ideas.  Whoever said 'Necessity is the Mother of Invention' certainly knew what they were talking about.  For me to make it as a Western dance teacher, Western dancing had to evolve. 

However, before I made wholesale changes, first I had to satisfy my conscience.  Western and Disco were different in one major way.  Thanks to 'The Twist', the partner dancing that was popular in the Fifties disappeared from the American landscape.  That meant my new Disco students had no pre-conceived ideas of what the patterns were supposed to look like.  As long as I invented patterns that reminded people of John Travolta in the movie, I was good to go. 

Since Disco partner dancing had come out of nowhere, my students had nothing to compare it to.  However Country-Western already had an established tradition.  Since 80% of the men at Cowboy made their women dance backwards, they knew what it was supposed to look like.  Something as simple as changing a man's hand from her neck to her back would be noticed.  So would allowing the girl to forward once in a while.  Those changes were sure to cause resentment.  In fact, it already had.  The Old-Style Western crowd was up in arms.  The slogan "I was Country when Country wasn't Cool" could be seen and heard all over Houston. 

Fortunately, there appeared to be two types of Western dance clubs.  Some were dumps, the Winchester Club for example.  Some were palaces, Cowboy for example.  And there were two styles of music, Outlaw Country and Progressive Country.  So why not two styles of dancing?  Judging by the clientele at Cowboy, I figured any changes would be tolerated. 

After giving it some thought, I decided it all boiled down to what made women happy.  During the Disco Era, whenever I introduced a Disco move, it lived or died based on the reaction of the women I tried it on.  Not every move survived the chopping block, but the ones that made women smile were keepers.  As my supply of new Disco moves added up, eventually I had enough to create a new level to sell to my students.  Indeed, the Die Hard class had consisted of students who stayed with me for up to a year simply because I continued to offer new ideas.   Why not use the same strategy for Western? 

One major change had already taken place here at Cowboy.  I noticed that close to half the men now placed their hands on the woman's back, not around her neck.  The pace of this transformation had taken me by surprise, but it made sense.   It was better for two reasons.  The women in my class liked it so much they insisted on keeping it that way.  The men objected at first, but folded like wet towels once they realized the women were serious.  In addition, they probably discovered it was much easier to guide the lady with their hand on the woman's back.  Even better, it made it easier to pull her closer if the occasion called for it.  My hunch was holding the back would surely win out, so I intended to keep teaching it this way. 

A GIANT LABORATORY RUN BY WOMEN

In addition to the neck wrap/back wrap issue, I noticed that fewer and fewer men were making the woman dance backwards for the entire song.  Those days were over, or at least they were over here at Cowboy.  These days, men and women took turns dancing backwards.  I was fascinated by this.  It seemed like overnight the switch was being made.  I had two questions.  First, why did it take 100 years for this to happen?  Two, why now? 

This is just a guess, but I blamed the phenomenon on Disco.  Why did women permit the men to go forward all night?  "Because that's the way it's done..."  Why did women permit the men to put their smelly arm around their neck?  "Because that's the way it's done..."

Now, thanks to the Death of Disco, changes were blowin' in the wind.  In 1979, all but three or four Houston Discos converted to Western.  There were a lot of Disco women who wanted to keep dancing, so they had no choice but to try Western.  However, the uppity Disco women drew the line at neck wraps and dancing backwards.  They rebelled, thereby provoking a backlash.

"But lady, that's the way it's been done for 100 years!"

"Maybe so, but I prefer things the new way."

Somewhere along the line, there was an unknown dance floor pioneer.  Call him Johnny Appleseed.  Johnny was the first guy who was willing to occasionally dance backwards (and survive to continue).  Since the women preferred Johnny's style, he had a wide choice of women to dance with.  Soon the other men begrudgingly learned to do the same.  Otherwise they faced the danger of missing out dancing with the popular ladies who flocked to Johnny. 

It seemed to me these changes were being driven by the women.  Once they realized they had the power to initiate changes by choosing which men to dance with (or not dance with), women could exercise considerable influence.

My old girlfriend Patricia intended to marry a rich man.  She was so good-looking that she ran through men faster than a knife through butter.  Patricia also had a smart mouth.  I recall her favorite saying.  "Men are like floor tiles.  Lay them right the first time and they are so much easier to walk on."  Patricia was the not settling-down type unless men had money.  Once she realized I could not afford her, Patricia handed me my walking papers.  "Don't be sad, Rick.  At least I made you better for the next girl who comes along."

Realizing Patricia had shaped my behavior from the moment we met, she became the inspiration for one of my pet theories about women.  I decided that men are a giant Laboratory experiment run by women.  Recalling my days as a psychology graduate student, I remembered my lessons on 'Operant Conditioning'.  In a manner similar to Pavlov's dogs, out on the dance floor the women were teaching men what they preferred through reward and punishment.  Something as simple as smiles and frowns could mold behavior.

Now that Urban Cowboy was supposed to open the door to changes, Country-Western had become a giant training experiment run by women.  Whatever a man did on the dance floor to make the woman happy was sure to win out.  That explained why Melanie's approval of my new moves had been so important.  Ultimately, it did not matter what I liked, it boiled down to what women liked.  There was a revolution going on.  The women at Cowboy had decided one hundred years of cowgirls dancing backwards was a thing of the past.  It was up to them to dictate 'How Things Would Be Done' from this point on. 

Now I understood what my friend Joanne had meant when she talked about the Old Twostep and the New Twostep.  Once the women began demanding changes, I was witnessing 'Natural Selection' in action.  This is a process whereby the men who best adapt to a changing environment are most likely to impress the superior women.  If women resented going backwards all night long, then no man with a brain would continue to operate that way.  If a woman liked a man's hand on her back, any man with a brain would cooperate.  The men with the best moves would thrive, the stubborn ones would be ignored.  That was the law of the land.

When seen a certain way, the Mating Game was responsible for the changes.  A single girl did the choosing.  By deciding which guy to dance with and which guy to reject, the prettiest girls held the power.  Ultimately, the guy with the coolest dance moves had the best chance of receiving an invitation to dance with the prettiest girls a second time, maybe a third time.  Other men would watch.  Some would catch on, others would remain clueless. 

What I was witnessing was the 'Evolution' of Western dancing now that the anticipation of Urban Cowboy had turned the Western clubs into the new hot spot.  I was very pleased with this realization.  I was convinced making up my own moves was the answer to my problem.  If my students liked the move, they would keep it.  If they didn't like it the move, they would discard it.  Not once had I ever been accused of Disco Blasphemy after inventing a new move.  Since this technique had worked for Disco, I was positive it would work again for Western.  Besides, in my opinion, if ever there was a style of dancing that begged for innovation, it was Country-Western.

Most changes take time, but the Old Country style was facing a major threat with the New Country style.  Due to the massive influx of Disco ladies who objected the old style, rather than a gradual change, changes could be made at a faster clip.  Which was fortunate for me because I too was a rebel.  I intended to use Foxtrot to change the look of Western dancing.  Call it selfish, but I had a house note and two dogs to feed.  Or maybe it was just my nature.  I would do whatever it took to continue my Magic Carpet Ride.