AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Cowboy boots and fishnets might not feel like a natural pairing, but at one dance party, that is pretty much the uniform. NPR's Margaret Cirino stopped by a weekly queer line dancing night in New York City to talk to the partygoers.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Go heels, toes, heels, toes. Right heel, left heel and step.
MARGARET CIRINO, BYLINE: Up on stage at the Brooklyn Monarch, an instructor is running through the steps for a line dance.
(SOUNDBITE OF FEET STOMPING)
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Don't stop, don't stop, give it all you got.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Yeah.
CIRINO: What got these 300 people out on a Tuesday night is Stud Country, a weekly queer line dancing party. It started in Los Angeles in 2018 and was so popular it spread to cities across the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Is this anyone's first Stud?
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh, my goodness.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CIRINO: The crowd is a sea of fishnets, leather boots, pink cowboy hats, glittering bikini tops. Some folks are sporting black tank tops with the word stud bedazzled in rhinestones.
(SOUNDBITE OF FEET STOMPING)
CIRINO: The first lesson ends, and a group peels off from the dance floor and heads to the courtyard out back to give their legs a rest. Tarryn Kudka is there with their friend Emily Harmse. It's their first time at Stud Country.
Have you line danced before?
TARRYN KUDKA: No. I've been wanting to do this for quite a while. I just heard it's a lot of fun.
EMILY HARMSE: After the first dance, I was like, oh, we're coming back.
CIRINO: For Harmse and a lot of others here tonight, this weekly dance is a rare chance to feel connected with other queer people.
HARMSE: We need queer community constantly, especially now, continuously. We need to keep being together and just having joy. This is beautiful.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CIRINO: The night's winding down, and people start making their exits. But a core group of veterans linger for the final hour called the power hour. It's the sweatiest point of the evening with the most difficult dances. One of those remaining is Kitty Horblit. She says Stud Country is vital.
KITTY HORBLIT: Very much like church. We're all in the same place at the same time each week. We're really just all here to, like, love on ourselves, love on each other. Like, I think that's what's important.
(CHEERING)
CIRINO: For NPR News, I'm Margaret Cirino in New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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