Line dancing resurgence draws gen Z out to socialise in Adelaide

Resurgent line dancing trend draws gen Z out to socialise in Adelaide Fri 12 Jun 2026 at 9:39am The pub's dance floor is packed, every surrounding table is occupied, the mood is jovial, and it's not even 8pm. This is line dancing, a trend that has kicked off this year with thousands of buffed cowboy boots across South Australia. From the country to the city, organised events have been filling venues with lines of people kicking their feet in various ways, such as at Mick O'Shea's Hotel south of Adelaide last Sunday night. "I love the sense of community and belonging that comes with being part of something," said participant Jess Rogers of Currency Creek. "And the way you feel when you're moving in unison with others is really something special. "Overall, it's just really fun. You kind of can't help but smile when you're line dancing." Eleni Giagos led the line dancing at Mick O'Shea's Hotel for Saddle & Stomp, attracting hundreds of people of varying ages, including a large percentage of millennials and generation Z members. From Port Elliot to the Barossa, Port Lincoln and Adelaide, she says wherever they run an event, it is "packed out". "I think it's very hard to meet people in today's age because of the impacts of COVID-19 and the use of phones, and people being behind screens and connecting with others mostly through social media," Ms Giagos said. "Whereas this gives people an opportunity to come together in a space where everyone's doing the exact same thing, and no-one's really judging each other. "Everyone's there to master that one dance that they learnt, or the five they may learn that night. "And they're not feeling forced to stay out drinking into the wee hours of the night because, as you can imagine, gen Z aren't drinking as much anymore, but they're still looking for something to do to come together and meet new people." Peter Heath has been running classes with Line Dancers of South Australia for 33 years. He said the emerging trend of "recent months" followed a resurgence in the popularity of country music outside of the United States. "It's basically due to TikTok being a popular activity for the young ones, and anything that trends, they jump onto," Mr Heath said. "There's been a couple of country music artists that have sort of crossed over into the pop scene, and they've been putting dances together, and suddenly TikTok has line dancing on it. "The young ones are jumping on the bandwagon, which is wonderful for line dancing." It's also happening at a time when Australians are socialising less and the quality of friendships has declined, according to the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. From California to Adelaide Ms Giagos moved to Adelaide from California, which she described as being at the "centre of line dancing for a very long time", and from where a lot of influencers post dances online. "When I first started here in 2024, there were about six people coming to my classes, and it was widely known as something that maybe their parents or grandparents did," she said. "People weren't always a fan of country music at the start, and the more we pushed it on socials about how cool dancing can be, the more people wanted to come, and the more country music became popular, and they saw our advertising on socials, they wanted to combine the two." She said it became more and more popular each week. "I was doing it once a month at first, then we had to change it to fortnightly, then it moved to weekly because it was so popular,"Ms Giagos said. Ms Giagos said the social aspect of line dancing was one of its great attributes, having met her own partner through line dancing and many "best friends". She said new people often contacted her, not wanting to come alone, but then "they're back every single week because they've met lifelong friends". "Many people have met their partners through it, so it's just a place where people can meet in a like-minded environment, a diverse range of people that you wouldn't necessarily pass every day," Ms Giagos said. Ms Rogers said it was her love of country music that first exposed her to line dancing. "I loved watching others dance, and once I realised that I could learn a few steps, I was hooked," she said. "I also believe there are cognitive benefits, having to remember multiple sequences of steps, as well as the obvious fitness benefit." Keeping 'the thing alive' Mr Heath runs about 40 classes each week across metropolitan Adelaide and regional areas. His organisation used to run weekend social events in pubs, but his own lessons were now conducted on weekdays and generally attracted an older crowd. He has even written a book, entitled Line Dance Essentials, "which captured all the training techniques and stuff that we learned in the first 25 years". "So I'm trying to keep the knowledge out there in general availability so that the young ones have got some resource material,"Mr Heath said. "Hopefully, by the time the resurgence is finished, we'll have a bunch of new people into line dancing and keep the thing alive, which would be wonderful."