Man In Blue Jeans Steals Show In Remarkable 'Footloose' Line Dance Performance

Jun 22, 2021 by apost team

Line dancing is one of the most popular forms of organized dance and it is well-loved all over the world. One man amazed the audience with his original line dance choreography called “Holy Moly” at the festival OKIES in Sauzé-Vaussais, France, in May 2019. That man was David Villellas and he performed with his group at the festival, dancing to the song “Footloose” from the hit movie of the same name. 

The version of the song that Villellas is dancing to is a cover by artist Blake Shelton. The original version was sung by Kenny Loggins. The song was released in January 1984 and spent three weeks at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Blake Shelton version of the song was released in 2011 for the remake of the 1984 film. 

The Blake Shelton version is similar to the original and was a good choice for Villellas’s line dance choreography. The video recording of the performance was posted on May 22, 2019, and it really shows off Villellas’s spectacular dance skills. He moves with so much fluidity it is as if he is in water, and he is complemented by the synchronization from the other dancers. 

The entire dance is mesmerizing and every turn and twist flows nicely into the next. Everyone has a big smile on their faces, making it seem as if they are all enjoying themselves as much as the viewers. Every dancer is dressed in cowboy boots, jeans, a flannel shirt and a cowboy hat. They all look like they could have been extras in the film because they fit in so well.

There are over 500,000 views on the YouTube video. One viewer pointed out one of the girls dancing beside Villellas in a comment under the video. “I like the girl in the grey silver attire. Go girl! And ya'll are real real good. Sure lifted up my spirits. God bless everybody,” they wrote. The woman to the right of Villellas looked thrilled to be there and really embodied the spirit of the song. 

Another commenter shared that they loved the dance so much, they wanted to learn it themselves. The person commented, “(I) Learned it! I’m at .75 speed just fine. It’s that last little bit of speed. But I’m pretty proud of myself for learning this in bits of stolen time.” It is so impressive that someone could learn the dance from just watching the video slowed down. Villellas must be happy to know people from around the world are learning his dance.

Line dancing is a choreographed dance routine done with a group of people that has a repeated sequence of steps. According to Bella Ballroom, “There are several different theories as to how and when line dancing originated. Line dancing has many forms and has existed for thousands of years in many parts of the world. The first known line dance instructions were written in a book of dance sheets in 1650 for English Country Dancing.”

This means that country line dancing originated in Europe and then was brought over to the United States by the English settlers. Today, line dances are traditionally done to country music but there are some popular line dances that aren’t, like the “Cha Cha Slide” and the “Macarena.” You often see these dances performed at weddings and nightclubs or even for exercise in these modern times.

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"Footlose," on the other hand, has a more recent history.

The film’s soundtrack was widely lauded in the press, with Loggins’ “Footloose” receiving a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination in 1985. Other well-known tracks from the film include John Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good,” Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head (Metal Health).” But if one song stands out from the bunch, it’s Loggins’ “Footloose."

"We didn’t expect ‘Footloose’ to be the movie of the summer back then,” Loggins explained in a 2011 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “We’d be lucky if it got any attention at all. But I remember sitting in the theater, the lights go out and the first thing I hear are the first few bars of my song. And the opening of the movie was all ‘Footloose.’ And I was pretty shocked. No one had told me that was going to happen.”

Loggins’ “Footloose” was so impactful that the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress added the track to its National Recording Registry on March 18, 2018.

“The film’s title tune, performed by Kenny Loggins, remains today deeply emblematic of the 1980s—fun, invigorating and, in its way, a little rebellious,” the Library of Congress wrote in their March 2018 briefing. “Co-written by Loggins and the film’s screenwriter, Dean Pitchford, the song would prove to be the biggest hit of Loggins’ long career (dating back to his work with Jim Messina from the early 1970s) and the biggest hit from the film’s multi-platinum soundtrack. Since its debut and initial 16 weeks on the Billboard charts, the song has served as the musical centerpiece for both the 1998 Broadway musical and the big-screen remake released in 2011.”

Did you enjoy Villellas’s dance to “Footloose”? Do you like line dancing? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to pass this story on to your friends and family.