Two-step 101

Where the dance floor, the classroom, and forever meet

Bob commanded our attention, standing in the middle of the dance floor with a microphone headset under his white cowboy hat, the kind our preacher wires up every Sunday for the pulpit. My date and I shared a sly grin.

Looking around the room, most of the other couples had at least 20 years on us. As students in Bob’s beginners’ two-step class, we split up with women on one side of the floor and men on the other. According to Bob,

“Normally women learn faster than men, so we teach ladies first.”

Bob Spears and his wife, Lucy, are local legends. For more than 20 years they’ve been instructors for the Tulsa Country Western Dance Association. Every Monday night, and almost every other day of the week, the couple hosts two-step and line-dance lessons at the Green Country Event Center. The class was a first for my partner and I, true amateurs. Nineties country music from every radio of my childhood played on the sound system as middle-aged men and women, a few young children, and some curious 20-somethings shuffled into the room, decked out in blue jeans and cowboy boots, to sign in. There’s never any pressure to join the TCWDA—in fact, there’s no membership at all. Classes are $7.50 per session, but the first one is always “on the house.”

More than two decades ago, Bob and Lucy’s daughter encouraged the pair to sign up for a beginners’ class. The music, the dancing, the camaraderie of friends – the Spears were instant fans. But after a few short lessons, their instructors called it quits. Bob and Lucy wanted to rescue the group before it disappeared in the dancehall dust.

“We were only about one lesson in front of our students, so we started traveling all over the country taking classes, workshops, and private lessons – looking for any kind of instruction we could find,” Bob said.

They brought each new technique back to Tulsa, where Bob and Lucy’s growing fame attracted a loyal following. Some of their students have been coming to class for nearly 20 years. In the summer, Bob and Lucy host more than 50 regulars a week; in the fall and winter, it’s up to 90. Most students range in age from 40 to 70. 

After some initial instructions on form and feet movement, we slowly started piecing together the traditional two-step. “Quick, quick, slow … and … slow,” Bob repeated as we trotted back and forth, our boots creaking across the wood floor to the tune of “Mama Knows the Highway Now By Heart.” The woman’s first step is always back; the man always leads. I watched my date, usually a jokester, stare down at me with a wrinkled brow. He mouthed, “Quick, quick, slow … and … slow.”

Before long, we incorporated slow spins and promenades into our newfound repertoire. It was more challenging than it looked. We were stopped mid-spin by one of Bob’s assistants, who corrected our form before reassuring us: “Don’t worry, it just takes practice.”

Bob and Lucy celebrate 50 years of marriage this month. Now retired from their day jobs, the couple spends almost every night of the week instructing – the Two-Step Shuffle, Country Waltz, East and West Coast Swing, the Cowboy Cha Cha, and any other style students say they want to learn. Welcoming awkward beginners as well as polished performers, the Spears’ classes have grown into a family reunion of sorts, complete with life, laughs, and line dancing. More than 40 couples have married after meeting in one of the sessions, and there have been a few funerals here and there, too. The TCWDA has been a saving grace for older folks and divorcees, Bob and Lucy said.

“We get together for parties, cookouts and trips. They’re a great group of people from all walks of life,” Lucy said. “I can’t imagine not seeing them every week.”