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Line Dance Counts: 32, 48 and 64 Counts, Walls, Tags and Restarts
A line dance count is how many beats one pass takes. Here is what 32, 48 and 64 counts mean, plus walls, tags, restarts and how to read a step sheet.
4 min readWritten at Count Studio
Short answer
A line dance count is the number of beats of music one pass of the dance takes before the steps repeat. A 32-count dance is four eights: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, four times. A 48-count dance is six eights and a 64-count dance is eight.
Walls are the directions you face, a tag adds extra steps, and a restart takes you back to the top early. According to the World Line Dance Newsletter, the count is "the number of beats of music it will take to complete one repetition or sequence of the dance."
What does a count number mean?
The number is beats, not steps. The World Line Dance Newsletter adds a reminder that the number of steps may not equal the number of beats. A "1&2" uses two beats and three steps, because the "&" is a half beat.
Counting in eights keeps it easy to hold. If you already know what an 8-count is, a long dance is only that eight repeated with different steps.
| Count | Eights | How you say it |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | 4 | 1 to 8, four times |
| 48 | 6 | 1 to 8, six times |
| 64 | 8 | 1 to 8, eight times |
Take one eight at a time. You don't need to hold 64 beats in your head at once; you hold eight blocks of eight.
What is a wall?
A wall is the direction you face. Wikipedia notes that line dances are commonly described by their number of walls, and that a wall is the direction in which the dancers face at any given time. In its description, a two-wall dance turns 180 degrees each pass and a four-wall dance turns 90 degrees.
| Type | What happens at the end of one pass |
|---|---|
| One-wall | You face the same way as at the start |
| Two-wall | You turn a half turn, so passes alternate between the back and front walls |
| Four-wall | You end a quarter turn from where you started, so you face each of the four walls in turn |
Wikipedia's Electric Slide page calls the Electric Slide a four-wall line dance. In a four-wall dance, one pass is only a quarter of the full cycle: you need four passes before you face the first wall again. When a step sheet says "wall 3", it means the third time through.
What are tags and restarts?
Songs don't always fit the dance neatly. Tags and restarts are how choreographers fix that.
A tag is, in the World Line Dance Newsletter's words, "an extra set of steps not part of the main dance that are inserted into one or more parts of the dance." A restart means beginning the dance again after only a portion of it, which the same page says is used to make the dance fit the music.
Here is how a restart reads, as an invented example. "Restart on wall 3 after count 16" means: dance counts 1 to 16 on the third pass, stop, then go straight back to count 1 facing your new wall. A tag reads the other way round: when the step sheet reaches the place it names, you dance the extra steps, then carry on.
Neither one is a mistake. Both are written into the dance, and the step sheet says exactly where they fall.
The usual slip is to treat a restart as the end of the dance. It isn't. You stop partway, go back to count 1, and keep dancing, so keep counting through the stop instead of letting the count lapse. Another is to forget a tag because it comes only once or twice. Read the tag lines before the music starts, and say the wall number to yourself as each pass begins.
How do you read a step sheet?
Start at the top. A step sheet names the dance, the count and the walls, then writes the steps in blocks of eight. Tags and restarts are listed with the wall or count where they happen, so read those lines before you dance.
A few reading habits help:
- Say the count out loud as you read: "1 2 3 4, 5 6 7 8".
- Watch for "&" counts. Half a beat is easy to miss on paper.
- Check the wall number against your own pass. Keep track on your fingers if you need to.
- Terms vary between instructors, so check what a word means in your class before you rely on it.
Our line dance guides take individual dances apart in the same way.
Practise it
Learn one eight at a time, walking it slowly with no music. Add the next eight only when the first one feels automatic. Then walk the whole dance through once on each wall, so the turns are not a surprise.
When you add music, find the 1 in the music first, so your first count lands where the dance starts. Mark a spot on the floor, such as a taped cross, so you can see where wall 1 is. If the dance has a tag or a restart, drill that moment on its own a few times before you put it back inside the full dance.
Count Studio is a counter for dancers, and its library includes the line dance 32-count pattern. It counts a song in eights and shows you where the 1 is. It is coming November 27 to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Bottom line
The count is the beats in one pass, so 32 is four eights, 48 is six and 64 is eight. A wall is the direction you face, a tag adds steps, and a restart sends you back to the top early. Read the step sheet to see where each one lands, then learn the dance one eight at a time.
Questions
What does 32 count mean in line dance?
It means one full pass of the dance takes 32 beats of music before the sequence starts again. Counted in eights, that is four eights: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, four times.
What is a wall in line dance?
A wall is the direction you face. A one-wall dance ends facing the way it started, a two-wall dance alternates between the front and back walls, and a four-wall dance turns a quarter each pass so you face every wall in turn.
What is the difference between a tag and a restart?
A tag is an extra set of steps inserted at a set point in the dance. A restart sends you back to the beginning after only part of the dance. Both are used to make the dance fit the music.
How do I know how many counts a line dance has?
Look at the top of the step sheet. It states the count, and the steps are written out below it, usually one eight at a time.