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State country dancers hope to take next step at global competition
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By Brandy McDonnell
Published: December 29, 2007
When Lee Harpe and Marcy Dail dance the two-step, every turn, spin and flourish is exact and seemingly effortless, their feet and arms moving in precise concert.
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Going country
Harpe started taking dance lessons at age 16, Dail when she was 25. They teach ballroom, Latin, swing and country dancing. But they hit the country circuit for competition.
"I've always loved country-western. It's so much fun, and you can go anywhere with it. You can find a club anywhere to dance with it,” Dail said.
In the 1990s, Dail and her former partner started on the country-western circuit and sought coaching at Harpe's Dance Inc., the Oklahoma City studio Harpe founded in 1992.
Dail began teaching part-time at the studio about 10 years ago and made it her full-time job in August.
Harpe started in country dancing in 1980 before moving on to other dance forms. He went back to country as a pro dancer in 1992.
"It's just so Oklahoma,” he said. "Country dance has basically been around Oklahoma forever and ever.”
Dave Getty, a Dallas-based founding member of the United Country Western Dance Council, said the 1980 movie "Urban Cowboy” made country-western dancing popular. With dance events popping up across the country, the council formed in 1988 to provide rules and goals.
Beth Emerson, the council's vice president of rules and a teacher at Harpe's Dance, said the dance form has a set of specific steps and styles like ballroom dancing, but with distinctive country flair. It is less formal and more relaxed.
Country dance styles include the waltz, two-step, cha cha, night club two-step, polka, triple two-step, East Coast swing and West Coast swing.
The difference between country club dancing and competitive country dancing is "the difference between an ice skater hob-nobbing on the local pond versus performing in an Olympic arena,” Getty said.
"This is top-level country dancing that they're in,” he added. "They're a newer partnership, and they've kind of risen to the top very fast. The fact that they're going into worlds undefeated makes them sort of the couple to beat.”
Becoming partners
Harpe and Dail began dancing together professionally about three years ago but weren't true partners. Dail had been off the pro scene for a few years, while Harpe had just ended a partnership with Emerson. They wanted to compete again, so they teamed up as pro-pro dancers.
In pro-pro categories, professional dancers team with their more experienced coaches. Only the student — in this case, Dail — is judged.
"After dances, judges and spectators would come up to us and encourage us to dance as professional partners,” Dail said.
In the meantime, romance bloomed. But for now, their focus is on the championship.
"It's a big deal for the dance community here in Oklahoma if we and our students could bring back a world title,” Dail said.
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