Lindsey Hull
Josh Fugate and Shelby Valade (back, center) with the Thursday night crowd
Sidewinders Steakhouse & Saloon holds line dancing nights twice weekly. Though the dance floor features a disco ball and flashing lights, this isn’t your average night at the club.
Go downtown on any given Tuesday or Thursday evening, and you're bound to see some cowboys walking around. They’re headed to Sidewinders, and they are all decked out in blue jeans, belt buckles and big hats. The girls wear cut-offs and loose T-shirts. Cowboy boots are a must down here. To an outsider, the gathering looks like a country western convention. To those who attend regularly, it is a family outing.
For the last 11 years, the establishment has offered these line dancing nights as a way to bring the community together. Unlike at their weekend events, all ages are welcome on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Patrons under age 16 may attend with a parent.
Sidewinders co-owner Scott Howard remembers opening the doors to mothers and their children. The mothers would enjoy a night out and the children would dance, Howards says of Sidewinders’ early line dancing days.
“Everybody enjoyed it. Little girls with pink guitars and pink cowboy hats and little guys wearing big hats were on the floor learning to dance,” Howard says.
Howard’s top priority is maintaining a safe space for people of all ages. That’s why he employs off-duty Roanoke City police officers to monitor the space. Every attendee must also show their ID to enter the building.
“It’s a different environment nowadays. We want to have a nice, safe environment for everybody,” Howard says.
By 8 p.m., patrons are lined up outside the building, waiting to pay the $10 cover charge and have their IDs scanned. Many of them report that they’ve been dancing at Sidewinders for a long time. Most of the patrons are young — in their teens and twenties.
They might not be related, but the close-knit group of regulars feels like one big family.
Twenty-year-old Anna Harris has been dancing at Sidewinders for nearly two years. “Everyone is friends here,” Harris says.
McKenna Poe echoes Harris’s sentiment. “I work a lot and don’t get out much, but my people are here,” she says.
Lindsey Hull
Dancers step in unison at Sidewinders Steakhouse & Saloon.
Patrons drive to Sidewinders from all over the region. On a recent Thursday night, the bar was full of people from Roanoke, but also from Lynchburg, Blacksburg and beyond. When college classes are in session, many students drive in from Virginia Tech, Radford and Liberty University, according to Howard. Local students from Roanoke College and Hollins University can also be found on the dance floor.
Star Country DJ Kevin Scott keeps the music blasting. He takes requests from the crowd, pairing the songs with flashing lights, background graphics, and video shots of the dancers. On a typical night, he plays country and some pop. Sometimes someone will request the Cupid Shuffle or another traditional line dance. He plays it all.
Each time the music changes, new dancers quickly join the dance floor. They kick up their heels, stomp in time with the music, and move in unison to any number of popular songs. The effect is hypnotic — these folks dance as a unified body, without anyone needing to call out the song, the name of the dance, or the choreographed steps.
Harris grew up dancing with Floyd Ward School of Dance and naturally took to the choreography, she says. “I watched people and picked it up. You just have to jump in,” she says.
For those who can’t learn a dance by just jumping in, Howard employs two line dance instructors — Shelby Valade and Josh Fugate. They rally the crowd to learn several new dances a night.
“Hit the dance floor!” they yell into their microphones as they jump on the nearby stage. Scott aims the camera at Valade or Fugate as they slowly step the crowd through each move.
Valade and Fugate have both danced at Sidewinders for several years. Eventually, the students became the teachers. Both in their twenties, they are full of energy and coax even more excitement out of an already-buzzing crowd.
“It can be like a football game some nights,” Fugate says, regarding the crowd’s energy levels.
“Grapevine to the left. Step to the right,” Valade or Fugate might say to the new dancers, demonstrating the move for those who are more visual learners.
Most of the time, they take turns teaching. Sometimes, they gather everyone together for partner dances.
Virginia Tech student Nick Ebert enjoys the partner dances most, he says. He learned to swing dance and two-step while visiting Norfolk over the summer. He hopes to bring some of that energy with him to Roanoke.
“You just get out there and do the moves you want to do, but you do them together,” Ebert explained. Then, he excused himself to dance with Harris.
Sidewinders underwent a massive remodel during the pandemic, according to Howard. He and his business partners opened a second, larger bar in the building’s upper level. Howard might soon move line dancing to the larger dance floor upstairs, he says.
Upstairs or down, friends and family will gather, share a drink and dance a step or two.
“Folks come once or twice, then they start coming religiously every week,” Valade says.
“Compared to everything happening downtown, this is the place to be,” Howard says.