On a Wednesday afternoon at the Sixth Street Senior Center, Pam Moore is preparing for a class. As the dancers stream onto the dance floor, she connects her phone to Bluetooth and addresses the group.

“So,” Moore said, “we’re doing ‘What the Cowgirls Do.'”

She begins to move slowly through the dance as she speaks.

“Here’s how to start: Stomp, tap your heel three times and that foot slides across the floor with the heel,” she said.

Moore’s class watches attentively and she continues.

“Heel, toe, heel, toe, stomp, tap,” Moore added, tapping his foot. “Heel, toe, heel, toe, redirect steps.”

After explaining the dance, Moore turns on the music and counts the class in. And suddenly they start dancing.

Moore later said she sped it up a bit because a reporter and a photographer wanted to watch. The tour is usually slower.

Still, some long-time line dancers, like 84-year-old Maja Rodrigues, are learning the steps quickly. As the music plays, boot stomping and clapping begin to provide a rhythmic accompaniment to the song.

“We show the young people that you can make it, even if you’re 80,” said Rodrigues. “If you had asked me three years ago when I started, I wouldn’t have made it.”

Rodrigues said she likes the camaraderie. She also enjoys the physical and mental exercise that comes with learning new dances. But she wasn’t always as good as she is today. It took her years and help to get to where she is today.

“The people around you are so supportive,” she said. “They don’t laugh when you make mistakes, because we all do them.”

Moore began teaching line dancing classes about ten years ago. She taught classes at the Elks Lodge for over nine years before bringing the class to the senior center.

“I love music and have always loved dancing,” she said. “And I can’t sing very well, so this is a wonderful opportunity for me to enjoy music and exercise at the same time.”

For Moore and many of the regulars, the classes are a welcome social outing in addition to the necessary physical exercise. Many people who have been coming for years would never have met each other if they hadn’t decided to take the class, she said.

“I just love it,” Moore said. “All these people are my dear friends.”

One of those friends is Camille Holley. Holley retired in 2002 and started dancing after seeing an ad for tap dancing in the newspaper.

“So I took tap dancing lessons and while I was doing that my sister started line dancing. This line dancing had been going on at the community center for 20 years,” Holley said.

Eventually, Holley joined her sister in line dancing, and when the former teacher decided it was time to pass the torch, the two took over the classes.

“The woman who took over at the time was in her late 80s,” says Holley. “After a few years, she decided she was done with it.”

When she turned 80 in 2020, Holley decided she had enough of teaching. But at 84, she still enjoys dancing.

On Wednesday afternoon, she was one of those leading the group on the dance floor, executing the moves with ease in her skirt and cowboy boots.

Holley has even brought other family members into line dancing, including her daughter, who she says just went on a line dancing cruise.

Several members of the group danced into their 90s, Moore says, and others now teach their own classes.

“You can see their love,” says Moore. “We had some really close friends who died. But they kept dancing almost until then.”

Holley remembered a woman who danced with the group until she was 93 years old.

“She got up to line dance, had a heart attack and died,” Holley said. “That’s how I want to die.”