LARRY BASS
I’m Larry Bass from Jacksonville, Florida. I started line dancing in 1992, at the height of country music popularity when such artists as Brooks & Dunn, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Billy Ray Cyrus Garth Brooks hit the music scene. I learned the Electric Slide while attending a wedding thought it was great to be able to dance. I went to a local country club with a friend to listen to the music & noticed the dancers were dancing a different dance to each of the songs wanted to learn the dances myself. I found a local club that taught the newest dances started attending classes. I loved it so much I was soon dancing every dance during open dance. By the third month the instructor asked if I would be interested in taking over as she would soon be moving. I was reluctant, but she said that during open dance in her class everyone watched me to know what dance to do to each song. I gave it a try & loved it & she gave me her class. She soon asked me to take over teaching at the club as well. Soon I had three classes in town began working as DJ instructor there.
In 1995 I began choreographing line dances. My first dance was called “Too Young To Care” is still being done here today. Soon other places in Florida were doing my dances in 1997, my dance “Chomping At The Bit” became very popular, I was invited to teach at line dance events in the Southeast. Over a five year period I had six dances win choreography contests had two dances, published in Country Weekly magazine. I was invited to teach at the UCWDC Worlds event in 2000. I have been invited to teach at events organized line dance workshops in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland New Zealand. A number of my dances have been published in the U. K. Linedancer magazine as well as The Beat in New Zealand. The step description for Rumba Ride was printed on the inside cover of Line Dance Fever CD vol. 12. I’ve made so many wonderful friends.
In 2002 I limited my travel when I became the line dance instructor at the club 8 Seconds in Jacksonville. I met my wife Carol at the club we were married in March of 2003. After 8 Seconds closed in 2004, I’ve been a guest instructor at various clubs in Jacksonville as well as teaching classes around the area. I continue to teach six line dance classes in the Jacksonville area travel to events to teach DJ.
I think back to all the changes we’ve had in line dancing. We were lucky to get a step description back in the early 90’s. I remember seeing a dance being done at a club writing the steps down on a napkin so I could remember it so I could teach it. Just a few short years later I discovered the internet email. You could actually write the choreographer of the dance they would send you the step description to their dance they were so happy you were interested in their dance. You still had to buy the whole CD to get one song. To get dancers around the world to see your dance, you had to have them taught at workshops. Now we can download the song we need you can now put a video of your dance on youtube for the whole world to see. Even though there has been a movement for years to dances to pop hip hop style music, I continue to look to country music for most of my dances.
Now here at home I teach at the area Senior Centers during the week. When they finally learn a new step I’ve been teaching, I fake a tear tell them “my kids don’t need me anymore”. This gets quite a laugh from the dancers as many are years older than I am. I try keep my classes fun for everyone. When I first started teaching I noticed something funny. The dancers in my class have a certain spot on the dance floor they like to dance learn from. When someone misses a class, no one will take that spot on the floor. It’s like they have “marked” their spot no one is to dance there but them. I’ve asked other instructors if this happens to them & they all say it’s the same way in their classes. Another thing I’ve noticed in my travels is just about anywhere I go I see someone that, when they dance, there is so much joy on their faces, they just seem to light up the floor. My wife tells me she sees the same thing when I’mdancing. It’s what makes line dancing so special to me, to see that same joy in someone I’ve taught to dance the common bond I see in that joy with others all over the world.
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