WORCESTER—Four nights a week, people of all ages stomp, sway and swivel in country line dances with names such as “Tush Push” to a variety of songs, from Ed Sheerin’s “Shivers” to Tracy Byrd’s “Watermelon Crawl.” A few even don cowboy hats and boots.
Is this taking place Deep in the Heart of Texas? No, it’s happening deep in the Heart of the Commonwealth at Rascals at 70 James St.
As Rascals’ website states: “Line dancing is a great way to get good exercise while having fun for dancers of all levels, from first-timers to old-timers.”
People from age 18 to well into their 80s line dance side by side.
“You watch those ladies who are 80-something years old,” co-owner Chris Goodney said, “when they’re out there dancing, they think they’re still in high school and they dance like they’re in high school. It’s like a Fountain of Youth sometimes, watching the older generation dance.”
Agnes “Aggie” Sheehy of Worcester is a member of that older generation. She didn’t want her age included in this article, but she’s a grandmother of three who has been country line dancing at 70 James St. for more than 30 years, usually on Wednesday nights.
“Even going just once a week,” she said. “You’re working and sometimes you’re stressed out and you go there in the evenings and it takes all the stress away. It’s a happy place and a lot of other people feel that way, too.”
Sheehy doesn’t feel as much stress since she retired, but she still enjoys country line dancing. She said she’s always been active and energetic, but country line dancing has improved her physical fitness.
“I’m the type that just can’t sit there,” she said. “I always have to be doing something. I’ve always been like that.”
Rascals co-owner Frank Pupillo, 58, of Worcester preaches the benefits of line dancing.
“The people who are older, like Aggie, look at it as exercise,” Pupillo said. “It gets them out, it gets their bodies moving, it gets them to keep active when they come into the club. The 18-year-olds come out more for camaraderie and fun and having a good time because they’re not old enough to go out to the clubs.”
Sheehy is a big booster of Rascals.
“She’s awesome,” Pupillo said of Sheehy. “She comes in every week. She’s always smiling. She’s always happy and she’s a big proponent of what Chris and I do. She’s one of them who comes up to us every week and thanks us for what we’ve done and thanks us that we’ve kept the place going. I think it’s like her second home.”
Goodney, 48, of Worcester, wears a cowboy hat and boots when he gives lessons on Thursdays. He has a unique way of describing line dancing.
“Unfortunately, I’d say it’s like riding a moped,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun, but your friends will make fun of you for doing it.”
Goodney knows that line dancing had to overcome the reputation of being a bit silly in the 1980s when people danced to “Achy Breaky Heart” and “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”
“Which are both, by the way, great dances,” he said, “but I think sometimes they have that stigma to them where it’s just that weird people do it.”
That’s no longer the case. People have line danced at 70 James St. since the early 1990s and over the years the club has been named the Penitentiary, Cowboy Junction, Neon Moon and the Dance Ranch before Goodney, who became a disc jockey at the Dance Ranch in 2012, and Pupillo bought the club in 2019 and renamed it “Rascals.”
Four months later, the pandemic hit and Rascals closed for 15 months. The next spring, the club reopened with limited capacity and it has been running at full capacity since the summer of 2021.
What is the key to line dancing?
“Realize that you’re going to be bad at it,” Goodney said. “Knowing going in that you’re not going to be great at it, but you’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself and be ready to have a good time.”
Actually, line dancing isn’t really that difficult.
“It’s not hard at all,” Goodney said. “If you can walk and count to four, you can do it. As long as you can count to four and know the difference between your right and your left, you can do it. The only thing that sticks in your way is whether or not you can hear a beat…if you have rhythm.”
Each dance is performed in steps of four counts. The $10 cover charge includes dance lessons by the disc jockeys.
Donna Raftery, 77, of Grafton has danced for more than 30 years, sometimes in cowboy boots.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s good for my brain and it’s good physical activity. It’s my life.”
Her husband, Al Harris, 77, has danced for 17 years.
“You have to use your brain to do your steps and listen to the music at the same time,” Harris said. “So I know that’s good for you.”
Goodney said he gets a kick out of people running onto the dance floor when a popular song begins and watching their smiles disappear while they concentrate on their dance moves.
Raftery dances on Monday nights in Framingham, Tuesday mornings at Trinity Church in Northborough, Tuesday nights in Webster, Wednesday nights at Rascals and Thursday nights in Berlin. Harris also dances all four nights, but not on Tuesday mornings.
Asked why he dances so often, Harris replied, “Because she does.”
Abbie Rock, 21, of Oxford dances in her cowboy boots at Rascals on Wednesdays and Fridays.
“It’s just so fun here,” she said. “It’s great to get out with my friends. We have all grown to love line dancing. It’s something to do and you can do it together.”
Rock enjoys seeing the older folks get up on the dance floor.
“It’s nice to see that they’re out here living their best life,” Rock said.
Sue Gallagher, 53, of Leicester has country line danced at 70 James St. for more than 30 years.
“I love to dance,” she said. “Dancing keeps your brain functioning, it keeps you healthy, it’s a workout. There are good friends, good people here. This is a very friendly establishment. I’ve made a lot of friends of all ages and it’s just a lot of fun.”
When Gallagher taught Sheehy in an aerobics class at the Greendale YMCA, she urged her to try country line dancing and she did. Gallagher’s 79-year-old mother, Janet McClure, dances when she visits from Florida.
Do the owners dance?
“He can,” Pupillo said of Goodney. “I won’t.”
Pupillo sings instead. He is the lead singer for Shot of Poison, a tribute band to Poison and it performs all over the country, including some Saturdays at Rascals.
On the back wall of the club hangs an autographed guitar by Bret Michaels, lead singer for Poison.
Rascals is the only club in Worcester that offers line dancing every week. It has the city’s largest wooden dance floor at 3,000 square feet and it’s raised off the cement floor. So it has some give to it and dancers’ knees aren’t as sore the next day.
Rascals features country line dancing on Friday nights, but mixes in country with rhythm and blues, rock and roll, pop and even hip hop on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
From Tuesday-Thursday, customers as young as 18 are admitted. On Friday and Saturday, when bands play, it’s 21 and up.
Goodney said about 50 people line dance on Tuesdays, up to 80 on Wednesdays, nearly 200 on Thursdays and nearly 300 on Fridays. Lots of college students dance on Thursdays and Fridays.
The club is open 6-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 7-midnight or later on Friday and Saturday.
People come from as far away as the South Shore, New Hampshire and Connecticut. There’s no dancing around it – they all have fun.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
