How one entrepreneur is riding a wave in popularity for line dancing

While working a part-time job at a Boot Barn retailer near Nashville, a customer asked Justin Lee Williams if he would be interested in becoming a line dancing instructor. The Tennessee native had never line danced before, but he had the right vibe and the look: boots, buckle, and hat.

“So I went to one of the classes, and it was nothing but bachelorette parties,” he said. “I was like, ‘What's happening right now? Is my mom going to be proud of this?’”

He’s making his family proud.

Over the course of four years, Williams has become a sought-after instructor with a social media following of more than 300,000 on TikTok alone and clients flying him all over the country to teach at parties, events, and retreats.

Country line dancing is experiencing a bit of a resurgence. The revival, of course, is driven largely by our social media algorithms. And entrepreneurs like Williams have seen, or stumbled into, opportunity.

Williams took the Boot Barn job after getting caught up in the broker boom of 2021. His dream was to help clients find acreage in rural Tennessee to build a house. He called his company Tennessee Backroad. Only it was a terrible time to be a new agent.

“All the money that I saved, all the plans that I had just really started kind of crashing,” he said in an interview with WPLN.

The retail job was only part-time, so Williams was happy to also have a side hustle teaching line-dancing. He’s dabbled in entertainment, recording some of his own hip-hop music, but he never expected counting beats and calling out steps would be what gained him a worldwide following.

At first, he was only one step ahead of the students he was teaching, but he kept at it and got better — good enough that he started posting videos and saw that social media algorithms really amplify line dancing.

Then came the video that turned Tennessee Backroad into a line dancing brand.

Under the glow of kitchen lights in socked feet, he showed his young niece a few steps to Shania Twain’s hit “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” The video had hundreds of thousands of views in the first day, then millions. Shania, herself, made one of those reaction videos with her face on screen as she watched.

“What do you do? How do you keep that viral thing going?” Williams said. “I don't think it could have happened at a more perfect time.”

Song-specific line dances were taking off online, like Tamia’s “Can’t Get Enough.” So he kept gigging and clipping, building his following. Work started flowing his way, especially when Beyoncé put out her “Cowboy Carter” album.

“I’m Black, and a majority of what I focus on is country line-dancing,” he said. “When Beyoncé came out, that kind of allowed Black people to understand like, ‘Hey, we’re country too.’”

He’s comfortable choreographing “Cotton-Eyed Joe” or songs by Drake. He did a line dance for Ne-Yo’s Fourth of July performance this year in Nashville — Williams’ first experience with professional dancers.

Even when he’s crisscrossing the country to work corporate retreats in the Catskills, he’s usually teaching novices. There’s something about how accessible line dancing can be.

A renovated factory in Franklin, Tennessee that is now a busy retail space asked him to come teach line dancing a couple of times a month.

“We were looking to fill slow Monday nights and bring in some foot traffic,” said Micah Williams, the property manager.

She expected dozens and got hundreds. The Factory at Franklin had hosted dance classes before, like a salsa instructor, but that required couples. Line dancing works for individuals and groups.

“I bet 100 of our guests are singles, just out there dancing or looking to make friends, but able to just come and dance alone,” she said.

The suburban crowd is also mostly white, which Williams said he appreciates in this time of polarization and division. He said his own upbringing in nearby Pulaski, Tennessee — known as the birthplace of the KKK — helps him connect with every kind of crowd that shows up. Line-dancing has become meaningful work because it brings people together.

“I think it's great for Black people to see a Black man teaching white people how to do country line dance,” he said. “And I also think it's great for Black people to see a Black man teaching Black people how to do country line-dancing.”

Still, he knows he’s riding a wave. In September, Williams is leading classes on the Bosque Ranch in Texas where they do some shooting for “Yellowstone” and its spinoff shows. He wouldn’t mind if the next opportunity involved acting.