Country western gay bar seattle

Every Tuesday evening in the heart of Capitol Hill on Broadway, a group of folks spanning the spectrums of age, race, gender, and sexuality warmly greet each other inside All Pilgrims Church. The twang of country music fills the air. Soon 30 or more people are laughing and smiling as they move across the floor in lines, executing a complex series of steps and turns in all directions.

Some dance the steps as choreographed. Others add elaborate arm movements and improvised styling as if starring in a dramatic soap opera. Fast-forward to Friday night. Many of the same familiar faces are two-stepping and waltzing around the dance floor at the Century Ballroom just a mile south of the church.

The lights are lower, the outfits are on fire, and the joy is palpable. Newcomers and old-timers alike are united in our love of dance and our commitment to creating a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive community. Rain Country embodies the grassroots, cooperative, and welcoming spirit of our city in unique, magical, and ever-evolving ways.

This is our story. For Barb Buys, the country person to greet you at any Rain Country event today, the Timberline was an essential part of her coming of age in the s. After 15 years of serving a tight-knit community of dancers, the Timberline had to move from its original location in The dance culture that had made the bar so special struggled to retain its vibrancy amidst the transition.

At that point, Jim Drew grew tired of waiting for someone else to solve the problem and sent a rabble-rousing email to a local country-western listserv one Saturday in April Rain Country gives dancers control over what and how we dance. After eighteen months of planning and the closure of the new Timberline location inJim and gay group of dancers, instructors, and deejays created the completely volunteer-led Rain Country Dance Association in Soon, a western biweekly evening of line dancing was added to the calendar.

I first heard about Rain Country from Barb. I had enjoyed dancing at seattle Timberline and was disappointed when it closed. Despite my political disagreement with many of the lyrics in country western music, I have always been a fan of the twang and the rhythm. Once I began going to the Cuff, I was hooked.

Line dancing is one of my passions. It has been thrilling bar watch our group transform. We were once just a handful of die-hard regulars, gathering a couple of times each month in the cold basement of All Pilgrims Church, struggling to conquer intermediate-level dances. Rain County provides a delightful way to exercise my aging body —— and my aging brain.

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After moving for two hours while challenged to commit to memory a complex series of steps, I head home on Tuesday evenings energized and happy, often feeling quite a bit younger than my 77 years! And, Rain Country offers me so much more than that. I get to hang out with young people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s.