Line dancers from Morganton, Hickory, Statesville part of Carolina Girls tribe

Members of the Carolina Girls line dance team discuss the fun and fellowship of taking part in the group on Jan. 27, 2025.

Dancers Chrissy Nicole and Suzanne Margo connected on the website for a line dance team called Boot Boogie Babes.

A conversation led the duo to form line dance teams with members from Morganton, Hickory and Statesville.

More than 40 women now take part.

Time to form a team

Carolina Girls line dance team owner and instructor Nicole, 41, said she has taught dancing styles ranging from ballroom to country for 11 years.

The Statesville native started dancing when she was 6, learning ballet and jazz dancing. She moved to Denver, North Carolina, and started her own dance company, Social Dancing with Chrissy Nicole in 2017.

Nicole did not get a position with the Boot Boogie Babes line dance team, but she did meet Margo, 62. The pair soon came up with the idea for the Carolina Girls. 

“Me and Chrissy were on the website for Boot Boogie Babes at the same time,” said Margo. “(Chrissy was) texting. I was commenting. And then we connected. That was crazy.”

Margo was new to the Morganton area at the time and found that the team would be a great way to get involved in the area and make friends, she said.

Nicole and Margo officially started the team in May 2023. Their roster consisted of four or five dancers at first. The group has grown to 43 members and three teams.

From left, dancers Brenda Ellington, Rose Allman and Chris Faulkner chat between line dances in Hickory on Jan. 27, 2025.

“My favorite thing is bringing ladies together, changing their lives, because they become a family, and they build friendships,” Nicole said. “It’s just beautiful to watch.“

Nicole teaches teams in Hickory, Newton-Conover and Cornelius. Each team has three different levels: beginner, improver and intermediate. The team in Mecklenburg County has the most dancers, bringing in participants from Cornelius and Huntersville, she said.

The teams practice weekly and many of the dancers cross county lines to take part. Margo said she travels from Morganton to Conover every week to practice.

'Ladies need tribes'

To see the Carolina Girls in action is to witness sparkling silver boots, precision dance

movements, and a shared love of country music.

The dancing drew them together. A sense of community kept them coming back.

“The friendships you form, the exercise you get, and it's just having other ladies,” dancer Rose Allman said. “Ladies need tribes to be together to support. And do something you love, which is dance.”

Allman, 63, from Denver joined a team two years ago looking to find a group of people who shared her love of dancing. "I've been dancing forever, and so to to get a group of people that also shares that joy, and to actually learn how to do something where I don't look so crazy just out by myself," Allman said.

Some dancers find a way to relax by taking part in a team.

“I have, like, a really stressful job. When I like, hear music, it just shuts off,” dancer Summer Minton said. "(It’s) the one place that I can, like, go in and, like, relax, and I cannot be stressed.”

Minton, 42, has lived in Hickory for five years and joined a team a month ago looking to make friends and try something different, she said.

Carolina Girls line dance instructor Chrissy Nicole demonstrates the steps for a dance during a session in Hickory on Jan. 27, 2025.

Off the dance floor

In addition to practices and performances, the dancers get together for local meetups and nights out.

The group can sometimes be found at Coyote Joe's, a country music nightclub in Charlotte.

The Carolina Girls also hold public line dance lessons at local spots such as Novel Taproom in Newton.

“We do fun things outside of line dancing,” Margo said. “We get together for outings and celebrations.”

Dancers Brenda Ellington, center, Gabby Espada, left, and the Carolina Girls dance team practice to the song “Fireball” by Pitbull.

Every few months, the team travels to line-dancing events and workshops across the region. This year, the team plans on traveling to Raleigh, Greenville, South Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida.

Last year, the group participated in the International Linedance Flashmob on May 4 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Dancers and teams from all over the world performed a specific line dance and posted it online. The goal of the flash mob is to use line dancing to unify and bring people together.

Nicole estimates 1,000 people were involved in the Myrtle Beach mob.  “It was kind of liberating,” Nicole said. “It just made me feel free,”

Dancer Gabby Espada, center, spins during a line dance in Hickory on Jan. 27, 2025.

This is the first year that the Carolina Girls will dance competitively. Nicole is preparing a few of her teams to compete in the United States Line Dance Choreography Championship qualifiers in Orlando in July.

What's next for the Carolina Girls?

The Carolina Girls dance to songs ranging from country hits, such as The JaneDear Girls song “Merry Go Round,” to pop hits, such as Pitbull’s “Fireball.”

Much of the team’s current choreography is based on dances taught at Coyote Joe’s. “I try to teach what they teach. So, when we go down there we’re able to … get on the floor and dance,” Nicole said.

This year, Nicole plans on creating her own choreography for the team. “I'm doing some by myself. I'm doing some with my daughter, she dances well … (and) I’m doing some with a few of the girls,” she said.

Nicole hopes to branch out and create more line dance teams in the future. “I have ladies in Charleston and Rock Hill that are wanting me to start a team there,” Nicole said. “I’m looking for instructors to hire.”

More information about the Carolina Girls Line Dance Team and a calendar of their upcoming events can be found on the group's Facebook page. 

“I love to dance,” Allman said. “It's good for my soul. I need it.”