Worldly Chatter

This weekend in Almere-Buiten was Western Experience and since I had never been, Dutchie thought it best if I finally experience what she had been telling me about for years now. I admit, I was picturing cowboy hats, wranglers and lots of country music with line dancing and I wasn’t disappointed, I saw plenty of that but I got a bit more than I had originally thought. The definition of western experience as defined by the average Dutch person today: The American country and Midwestern lifestyle. Cowboys and Indians, Dr. Quinn medicine woman, country music, country line dancing and just line dancing. There are cowboy hats, chaps, raccoon tails, Native American garb and American beer! Dutchie is a lover of country music, she also used to line dance as well, competing and even taking home a metal, Benelux ‘99 2^nd Place Country Walkin’ Female Open Newcomer! Go Dutchie! Yet Dutchie doesn’t do this anymore and there is a really good reason as I saw yesterday.
She danced to country, she line danced because she loves country music and wanted a place to go and have fun; meet other people who share the same passion as she does in a country not very big on country music. Yet something changed along the way; younger people wanted in and the music changed. J-Lo, Will Smith, Pussy Cat Dolls; see where I am going with this. If you do it for the music and the music goes, what do you do it for then? In Holland, very few Line Dancing groups line dance to country now a day. It has also become more of a lifestyle for many of these people; a place to where the chaps, cowboy hats and dress up like the sheriff, Dr Quinn and have the Native American feel.
This is what many people, who have never been to America, think America is. Yet who are we as American to complain, we think of Holland and think windmills wooden shoes and the girls from the Rembrandt paintings. This was quite the experience! In one line dance group they wore shirts that Garth Brooks would have worn yet weren’t very good at what they were doing. Further still was another group of people line dancing to Rihanna and other pop music! Dutchies were getting on the dance floor and line dancing to music that you find in dance clubs, not country! There was however one group that made Dutchie proud! A group who really did country line dance and did it very well! They had fun, they danced great and it was country! Yvonne & Starlines! Now they had fun and they were great to watch! You see the hat there, that’s the tails I was telling you about. Can anyone remember the last time cowboys wore those things? But really, not all Dutchies think these things are the way of the American Midwest or country music for that matter. Dutchie likes to tell me that those who believe this give the rest a bad name who know what country is and know that America doesn’t live in the cowboys and Indian phase any more. I tend to agree. Yet even with all the funny clothes and hats some of the music was good and the Starlines really shined with their good old country line dancing! I had a lot of fun though I admit it is strange to see how some view my country. There are some who see it for what it is today but there are some out there who have fun dressing as though we are in Tombstone!

Western Experience, Cowboys and Indians, Dutch Line Dancing, Country Music, Line Dancing, Yvonne & Starlines