Maddison Glover during The Stomp in Wollongong earlier this year. Photo: Supplied.
In Kanahooka at “The Barn”, Maddison Glover is carrying on a gamble her father took three decades ago, after he walked away from a secure job in the coal mines to become a full-time line dance teacher.
“It was a pretty risky decision,” Maddison said.
“He left a full-time secure job in the coal mines to be a line dance teacher, which everyone thought was crazy. And he had 30 amazing years.”
The idea for the Illawarra Country Bootscooters began in 1993 at the Yallah Woolshed, when Tom and Donna Glover went along as students, “just as something to do as a couple and as a family”.
Maddison wasn’t born yet, but her three brothers were taken “under sufferance”, she laughed.
“They went to watch and within moments they were just immersed in this insane crowd at the Yallah Woolshed,” she said.
“That’s where their love of line dancing and country music grew.”
Tom stepped more into teaching when Maddison was born in 1994, admitting she was practically “brought up at the Yallah Woolshed”.
“Then we eventually moved on to what we call The Barn now, which is the Illawarra Aquatic Club, and we’ve been there for 26 years next month,” she said.
Maddison left her job as a primary school teacher more than two years ago to follow in her father’s footsteps.
She said in the 90s, predominantly driven by country music, came the “first line dance boom”.
“I think for many years, line dancing had such a bad name,” she said.
“It was criticised, and as soon as you’d say ‘line dancing’, people would put their thumbs in their belts and dance like hillbillies.”
As the stereotypes around line dancing began to fade, a new wave of crossover country music hitting mainstream radio helped fuel its resurgence.
“We had groups from America like Florida Georgia Line who started doing crossover country, and Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson and Ella Langley who started appearing on mainstream radio,” she said.
“The last two or three years, our classes have just grown rapidly.
“We even have three generations that attend our classes.”
Maddison took over running the Illawarra Country Bootscooters from her father. Photo: Supplied.
Maddison said classes spanned beginners to competition level for what was a low-impact dance form that appealed to all fitness levels.
With that, they built a community that gathered socially for weekend events and holidays to country music festivals.
“We don’t always wear the boots, the jeans and the country attire, purely because it’s taxing on the body” she said.
“We do 10 classes a week and some of them are between one- to two-and-a-half hour classes.
“Now a lot of them treat it as an exercise class. They come in their activewear, or whatever they’re comfortable in.”
Alongside classes, Maddison also runs annual national competition The Stomp at the Wollongong Town Hall, which this year attracted 600 spectators and competitors from across Australia and overseas.
“We had a couple of disability groups in the Illawarra actually compete for the first time too, which absolutely brought the house down,” she said.
“It’s such an honour to run an event in Wollongong, close to home, and have people from America, Denmark, New Zealand and all around Australia travel to be here.”
Maddison said The Stomp was a high standard competition, which they used as a platform for the World Dance Masters held in Blackpool, UK.
She said the club itself had won many awards through competitions over its history, and personally she had received the most number of Crystal Boots in Australia across all instructors and choreographers – line dancing’s equivalent of the Golden Guitar Awards.
Outside the business, she was also involved in gigs, including this year touring as part of country music festival StrummingBird featuring huge international and Australian names.
“I did that one last year with Jelly Roll and Shaboozy, and it was just so good for line dancing,” she said.
“I’ve got some cool country music and line dancing gigs happening this year, but it’s about being selective now, especially having my husband and being mum to a 16-month-old.
“I’m trying to incorporate them on this cool ride.
“It’s about enjoying having them there, and them enjoying the parts of line dancing that I grew up loving too.”
Illawarra Country Bootscooters is located at the Illawarra Aquatic Club, 1 Rushton Drive, Kanahooka.
