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Episode 214

Dancing Through Black History With Dr. Marcus Borders: Line Dancing, Skating, and Community

From roller skating rinks and line dance floors to Southern Soul nights in Atlanta, this episode captures the heart of Black joy, history, and the communal spaces where we find freedom together. DJ Sir Daniel and Jay Ray welcome Dr. Marcus Borders to discuss how he went from an introverted kid in Atlanta to finding his flow through skating, line dancing, community, and what that journey reveals about us as a people.

In this conversation, they dive into:

  1. How line dances like the Electric Slide, “The Wobble,” and the Tamia Shuffle offer a safe haven for introverts to step off the sidelines, blend into the crowd, and still shine.
  2. The way Atlanta’s skating rinks and Southern Soul line dance nights mirror a family reunion; intergenerational spaces where uncs and aunties, college students, and elders all moving to the same steps across different songs.
  3. Why Marcus made skating at Cascade a weekly ritual during the pandemic, and how he defends these dance spaces as essential to his emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being.
  4. What it takes for a DJ to truly read a Black dance floor—from giving the music space to breathe to smoothly dropping in line dances and slow jams that keep people moving.
  5. The idea of an unspoken “music school” happening at every class and party, where Black culture, rhythm, and movement are quietly passed down to little cousins, students, and the next generation, both on TikTok and in real life.

If you remember the first time you learned the Electric Slide, gliding to 90’s Quiet Storm cuts, or learning new steps in a basement before heading to the club, this episode will hit home in the best possible way.

Guest Biography

Dr. Marcus Borders is a Learning Innovation Specialist with Ed Farm, where he supports educators and school leaders in designing blended learning, coaching, and K–12 computer science experiences. His work centers on expanding access to high-quality technology learning and ensuring digital equity for the communities he serves, with a particular passion for elementary educators, students, and adult learners. Dr. Borders holds an Ed.D. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology from Kennesaw State University, along with degrees in Urban Teacher Leadership and Early Childhood Education from Georgia State University. A native Atlantan, Marcus can often be found outside of work rolling around one of the city’s skating rinks or learning the latest Southern Soul and trail ride line dances.

Follow Dr. Marcus Borders: http://instagram.com/quietasitskept

Links to Content Related To This Episode For Research and Context

Chapter Markers

00:00 Intro Theme

00:16 Welcome to Queue Points

01:05 Line Dancing Goes Viral

02:41 Meet Dr Marcus Borders

05:01 Introvert on the Dance Floor

06:45 Cars and Early Dance Roots

08:46 Skating Sparked the Shift

10:58 Finding Freedom and Community

13:03 Classes Across Generations

19:11 Atlanta Energy and Joy

22:52 What Makes a Good Groove

24:11 Dancing Like A Game

25:19 What DJs Should Play

26:48 Transitions And Crowd Reading

28:49 Hardest Line Dance Learned

31:13 Practice By Messing Up

34:23 Learning To Fall Safely

35:43 Classes Build Confidence

37:46 Protect Your Safe Spaces

40:10 Passing The Culture Down

42:16 Where To Take Classes

43:31 Final Thanks And Sign Off

45:58 Outro Theme

Support Queue Points By Becoming An Insider: https://link.queuepoints.com/membership

#QueuePoints, #BlackMusicHistory, #BlackCulture, #BlackJoy, #BlackLineDances, #LineDancing, #SouthernSoul, #TrailRideCulture, #RollerSkating, #AtlantaSkating, #CascadeSkatingRink, #AtlantaCulture, #BlackPartyMusic, #ElectricSlide, #ChaChaSlide, #TamiaShuffle, #QuietStorm, #CookoutMusic, #BasementPartyVibes, #BlackCommunity, #BlackTraditions, #BlackHistoryMonth, #DJCulture, #SkateCulture, #BlackDance, #BlackArtists, #BlackPodcast, #MusicPodcast, #CulturalCommentary, #BlackCreative

Transcript
Sir Daniel:

Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points podcast.

Sir Daniel:

I am DJ Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray:

And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government

Jay Ray:

as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III.

Jay Ray:

And Sir Daniel, we are about to put an exclamation point on the conversation

Jay Ray:

we had about line dancing, and I cannot wait to have this discussion.

Sir Daniel:

Listen, we all Black History month, we have been dancing

Sir Daniel:

up and down your timelines, talking about something that's very important

Sir Daniel:

to, uh, the Black community, the culture of being Black in America.

Sir Daniel:

And part of that is dancing.

Sir Daniel:

And more specifically, we've been talking about line dancing.

Sir Daniel:

Now we've had our discussions about the bus stop.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

We, um, the Chacha slide, those, the songs that go along with them.

Sir Daniel:

And now we are talking about a dance craze that has, it's been around, but

Sir Daniel:

more recently it's been, it's taken off and it took a life of its own Over the

Sir Daniel:

past summer, summer 24 with the, um, with the boots on the ground movement

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Sir Daniel:

specifically, um, Black Americans, um, really went.

Sir Daniel:

Like balls to the wall with this movement of going out into open fields.

Sir Daniel:

And you know, there's, there were songs, country songs made up

Sir Daniel:

specifically for this line dancing.

Sir Daniel:

And now if you listen to any type of radio station, there are actually formats now

Sir Daniel:

created for, um, what are they calling it?

Sir Daniel:

Um, Southern S Soul.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Sir Daniel:

And so it's really had an impact over the culture

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

When we decided to do this series on dancing, uh, there was

Sir Daniel:

immediately, the first name that popped into my head is the name of our guest,

Jay Ray:

Yes.

Sir Daniel:

because I've known him for years now and he's been along for my

Sir Daniel:

journey as a dj, and I've noticed that he's been on a journey of his own,

Jay Ray:

Mm.

Sir Daniel:

um, as he.

Sir Daniel:

His evolution.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Sir Daniel:

Um, and we're gonna talk about that, about his evolution and

Sir Daniel:

probably the reason why I was paying so much attention to it and why I think he's

Sir Daniel:

an expert to tell us to talk to us about this line dancing movement that we have

Sir Daniel:

been, um, experiencing across the land.

Sir Daniel:

So I'm gonna let you do the honors Jay Ray and introduce our guests.

Jay Ray:

Absolutely y'all.

Jay Ray:

So Queue Points family, um, we are going to welcome Dr. Marcus Borders to the show.

Jay Ray:

Dr. Marcus Borders is a learning innovation specialist with Ed Farm, where

Jay Ray:

he supports educators and school leaders in designing blended learning, coaching

Jay Ray:

and K 12 computer science experiences.

Jay Ray:

His work centers on expanding access to high quality technology,

Jay Ray:

learning and ensuring digital equity for the communities he serves.

Jay Ray:

With a particular passion for elementary educators, educators,

Jay Ray:

students, and adult learners.

Jay Ray:

Borders holds an ed d and an Ed s, uh, in instructional technology from

Jay Ray:

Kennesaw State University University, along with degrees in urban leadership

Jay Ray:

from early childhood education from Georgia State University.

Jay Ray:

A native Atlantan markets can often be found.

Jay Ray:

Outside of work, rolling around one of the city's skating rinks or

Jay Ray:

learning the latest Southern Soul and Trail Ride line Dances Queue Points.

Jay Ray:

Family, it is our absolute pleasure to welcome Dr. Marcus Borders to the show.

Jay Ray:

Marcus was having a man.

Sir Daniel:

How you doing?

Marcus Borders:

Going on.

Marcus Borders:

I'm doing well.

Marcus Borders:

How are you guys doing?

Sir Daniel:

Fantastic.

Sir Daniel:

I am, I'm really happy that you, first of all, that you decided to

Sir Daniel:

do this, um, because it's among the plethora of things that you're

Sir Daniel:

doing to, um, to stretch yourself.

Sir Daniel:

And, um, I just really enjoy seeing this journey that you've

Sir Daniel:

been on, as I stated earlier, um.

Sir Daniel:

Marcus has, has witnessed my journey as a dj and I've witnessed his

Sir Daniel:

growth as well, because we've known each other for some years now.

Sir Daniel:

Um, Jay Ray, we've had this discussion before about line dancing in particular.

Sir Daniel:

Like we, we would talk about the wobble, for instance.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Sir Daniel:

And as much as the song kind of, you know, got on my nerves during a

Sir Daniel:

certain at at its height, at the height of its popularity, I realized that I

Sir Daniel:

had to take myself out of the equation.

Sir Daniel:

And remember that this might be the only opportunity that some people

Sir Daniel:

will venture out on a dance floor and engage with the rest of the crowd.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Sir Daniel:

And I. Would it be, would, is it a stretch, Marcus, to say that you

Sir Daniel:

would be one of those people that in the midst of the, of the carrying zone of

Sir Daniel:

a party, the club or whatever, is it a stretch to say that you would've been the

Sir Daniel:

person that may have played the wall for the majority of the time that you were

Sir Daniel:

there until you heard a line dancing song?

Marcus Borders:

That is absolutely correct, uh, from

Marcus Borders:

the bits of my introverted soul.

Marcus Borders:

Um.

Marcus Borders:

That's how it starts.

Marcus Borders:

I love to dance.

Marcus Borders:

I was not the, um, you know, back in the day that your parents would say, come

Marcus Borders:

out here baby and do that dance that you

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

I was not that kid, but if you leave me to my

Marcus Borders:

own devices and you watch me, you might see me, you know, doing

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

so line dance was a. a way for me to kind of hide

Marcus Borders:

within a crowd and enjoy myself.

Marcus Borders:

Um, so that's where it kind of taps into the introversion part of me.

Marcus Borders:

So yeah, you've witnessed it at your DJ sets over the years of, you know,

Marcus Borders:

I might be just standing talking or, you know, at the bar somewhere, but

Marcus Borders:

you play a certain song and I just kind of make a beeline to the dance

Marcus Borders:

floor, and even if that song ends and it goes into something else, I might

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

by right off the dance floor after that.

Marcus Borders:

So, absolutely.

Jay Ray:

Wow.

Jay Ray:

You know, that's so brilliant.

Jay Ray:

Now you had to get to that place.

Jay Ray:

So you, you mentioned being an introvert.

Jay Ray:

I too, and people are surprised by that.

Jay Ray:

Am an introvert.

Jay Ray:

I. Completely get lost on the dance floor though.

Jay Ray:

We'll talk about this later.

Jay Ray:

Uh, you probably saw that.

Jay Ray:

I can't, I cannot line dance though.

Jay Ray:

I know the wobble and I know the electric slide.

Jay Ray:

The rest of it, I get confused.

Jay Ray:

I I don't know which way to go.

Jay Ray:

Whatever.

Jay Ray:

We'll talk about that later in a minute though.

Marcus Borders:

Okay.

Marcus Borders:

Okay,

Jay Ray:

I'm really curious about, so you had two passions that if you look

Jay Ray:

at your social media, like it comes up

Jay Ray:

Line dancing.

Jay Ray:

What was your journey that, especially as an introvert?

Jay Ray:

Like how did you get to, to these passions?

Marcus Borders:

so cars is really easy.

Marcus Borders:

Um, I'm an only child, and so I can name specifically my aunt.

Marcus Borders:

She was the one who got me into it, uh, when I was a baby.

Marcus Borders:

She had an 84 Corvette.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

and I just, it

Jay Ray:

Was that the one with the, with the, with the, with the, the

Jay Ray:

handle that went down in the thing.

Jay Ray:

It might have been a older one.

Marcus Borders:

that's the earlier generation.

Marcus Borders:

Uh, she had the one with the flip, with the headlights that I didn't, I didn't, I.

Jay Ray:

It's okay.

Marcus Borders:

Well, hers was the one that, uh, the headlights rotated

Marcus Borders:

over and flipped up at the same

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

Um, so that, and along with my dad buying me the

Marcus Borders:

hot wheels and the matchbox cars, that was a way for us to bond.

Marcus Borders:

And so I've loved cars, um, ever since.

Marcus Borders:

So you can

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

a car show at least once a month or doing something involving cars.

Marcus Borders:

I'm gonna add something in there that kind of leads into the line dance piece.

Marcus Borders:

Um, but I'm gonna go back beforehand.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

and dancing, I, uh, can visualize.

Marcus Borders:

My first grade teacher, Ms. Doko, um, every Friday we'd have a fun

Marcus Borders:

Friday moment, and this was, I'm telling my age, this was back

Marcus Borders:

with Mc Hammer doing the Hammer

Jay Ray:

Yeah, absolutely.

Marcus Borders:

it wasn't us watching movies or, you know, uh, eating ice cream.

Marcus Borders:

That happens sometimes, but you know, she was like, I want y'all

Marcus Borders:

to get up and do the hammer.

Marcus Borders:

Do the hammer.

Marcus Borders:

She would, you know, do it stuff.

Marcus Borders:

And, you know, we had these little contests, so that was like my.

Marcus Borders:

First time in saying, well, I can do this dance, but do I feel like doing

Marcus Borders:

it comfortably in front of people?

Marcus Borders:

And then she taught us the electric slide.

Marcus Borders:

So this is like in 19 91, 92, and that's when I learned

Marcus Borders:

how to do the electric slide.

Marcus Borders:

Um, probably didn't do it again until high

Jay Ray:

Hmm.

Marcus Borders:

was my first time kind of going into like doing

Marcus Borders:

line dance with groups of people.

Marcus Borders:

Skating is the thing that I want to interject,

Jay Ray:

Okay.

Marcus Borders:

a passion.

Marcus Borders:

So I love cars, love line dancing, but I probably would not be line danced or

Marcus Borders:

in the spaces that I've entered over the last almost year, if it was, uh, was

Marcus Borders:

not for skating and that's, I could talk to y'all all day about it, but just.

Marcus Borders:

It started in the, during the pandemic, um, I probably had no business being down

Marcus Borders:

at Cascade in the skating rink because, uh, business, most businesses were closed.

Marcus Borders:

But summer of 2020 is when I got out of the house and decided to roller

Marcus Borders:

skate, and I have not stopped since.

Jay Ray:

Wow.

Marcus Borders:

have not missed a week of skating.

Marcus Borders:

Um.

Marcus Borders:

since that.

Marcus Borders:

So this can go from three days a week to six days a week.

Jay Ray:

Wow.

Marcus Borders:

to skate in Atlanta.

Marcus Borders:

And that's how I became comfortable going to a lot of the events, uh, for

Marcus Borders:

line dancing because a lot of my folks who skate, I will look on Instagram,

Marcus Borders:

you know, scroll through my phone, like they're at this club, they're at this

Marcus Borders:

by there having the time of their lives.

Marcus Borders:

Um, and I innately love line dancing.

Marcus Borders:

And so being in that space of being comfortable with others that I was

Marcus Borders:

already familiar with made it easy for me just to pull up to these spots.

Jay Ray:

Wow.

Sir Daniel:

And so I, I'm hearing, I'm hearing the freedom in your voice that

Sir Daniel:

you feel in these spaces and the, the, the sense of liberation that a lot of us

Sir Daniel:

experience and when it comes to music.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

Like, I don't know if you've seen, there's a clip that I always pull

Sir Daniel:

that I like to post of Jay Ray for his birthday of him at, uh, one of the house

Sir Daniel:

in the, well not house, in the park, but one of the, um, Vivi house music

Sir Daniel:

celebrations at that will go down at the park and Jay Ray is in his world, he's.

Sir Daniel:

He is getting it.

Sir Daniel:

He don't know.

Sir Daniel:

He's, he's doing the things right.

Sir Daniel:

And same thing goes with, like, if I'm in the middle of a set of something that

Sir Daniel:

I really, really enjoy playing and I'm, I'm singing along and singing to the top

Sir Daniel:

of my lungs and Marcus is skating and you know, now he's skating backwards.

Sir Daniel:

I've seen you, he's skating backwards and, and crisscrossing and all

Sir Daniel:

the things and the line dancing.

Sir Daniel:

Talked to us also about.

Sir Daniel:

The freedom you expressed, but talk to us about the community that

Sir Daniel:

you've, um, encountered and that you've become a part of as a result

Sir Daniel:

of engaging in these, um, in these classes and these, these groups that

Sir Daniel:

encourage the skating and the dancing.

Marcus Borders:

Yeah, absolutely.

Marcus Borders:

So it's become important for.

Marcus Borders:

Me to, I wouldn't say that I isolate myself.

Marcus Borders:

I don't think that I do that.

Marcus Borders:

I'm always doing something out in the world, even, you know,

Marcus Borders:

in on an introverted level.

Marcus Borders:

So I don't shy away from being engaged in the world, but I do crave connectedness.

Marcus Borders:

And so pulling skating along, I mentioned kind of the grew and the

Marcus Borders:

pe, the groups and the people that I would see skating in those clubs

Marcus Borders:

or taking those line dance classes.

Marcus Borders:

think my level of discernment is important here to mention that.

Marcus Borders:

It allowed me to trust those people, to befriend them or to have some

Marcus Borders:

connectedness with them to say, Hey, it's okay if I just show up

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

and, you know, just pop up alongside even, you know, we

Marcus Borders:

are not the best of friends or the closest, we are at best really good

Marcus Borders:

acquaintances in these public spaces.

Marcus Borders:

Um, because I have to, skating and line dancing, I have to have a level of

Marcus Borders:

safety there, and I think that's where

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

when I'm skating doing my thing, you literally

Marcus Borders:

disappear into the music line.

Marcus Borders:

Dancing can be like that as well, um, in the sense that if you're

Marcus Borders:

around familiar faces or at least if not even familiar faces, people

Marcus Borders:

who are doing the same thing.

Marcus Borders:

Psychologically, I have, I haven't looked into the science of what that

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

but there's an air of freedom that comes about.

Marcus Borders:

Hitting the same move

Jay Ray:

Yes,

Marcus Borders:

or don't let you know a dance or something, and

Marcus Borders:

you're, you know, let's just say it's supposed to be step to the left.

Marcus Borders:

You know, a lot of people will step to the left and spin and then hit

Jay Ray:

yes.

Marcus Borders:

You're adding your own thing to it.

Marcus Borders:

So whatever the science and psychology behind that is, is what

Marcus Borders:

kind of speaks to that freedom.

Marcus Borders:

Is, is, is you knowing that you can kind of do something

Marcus Borders:

and mimic it and continue it.

Marcus Borders:

Wanna potentially other people in to do it as well.

Sir Daniel:

Jay Ray, lemme ask, I I I have a quick follow up question.

Sir Daniel:

I'm sorry.

Sir Daniel:

So when you, when you began to involve yourself in these groups, one,

Sir Daniel:

um, is it an interra, interracial?

Sir Daniel:

Is it an intergenerational experience?

Sir Daniel:

And if it is an intergenerational experience, what shocked

Sir Daniel:

you the most about.

Sir Daniel:

The, uh, the young people that were getting involved or, you know,

Sir Daniel:

what, what, what did you find most surprising about the people that

Sir Daniel:

you would meet at these groups?

Marcus Borders:

So speaking to the classes, uh, there's one particular

Marcus Borders:

class that I, uh, went to, um, shout out to DJ Trell Tsunami.

Marcus Borders:

Um, his classes were free.

Marcus Borders:

I'm very particular about high.

Marcus Borders:

Taught things, especially when it involves movement in my body.

Marcus Borders:

I was that way with skating and so went to one class, trusted how he, he taught

Marcus Borders:

the content is very much kind of hit quit and then we have a good time afterwards.

Marcus Borders:

Um, so I appreciated that space.

Marcus Borders:

Um, the intergenerational piece,

Marcus Borders:

I'm trying to think of the actual classes themselves.

Marcus Borders:

I would say we would range from.

Marcus Borders:

Mid twenties, you know, low twenties, probably up into the sixties.

Marcus Borders:

And it's really every, it is like a, it's a family oriented environment.

Jay Ray:

Hmm

Marcus Borders:

Um, down to the dj.

Marcus Borders:

You know, you come once or twice, not once or twice a week, but you

Marcus Borders:

know, multiple times, you know, he's walking around, dapping you up and

Marcus Borders:

giving you a high five, shaking your hand because he's familiar with you.

Marcus Borders:

You see the same faces, whether this is Ms. I'm just throwing out a name here.

Marcus Borders:

Ms. Jones, who might be 64,

Jay Ray:

mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

Hey baby, how you doing?

Marcus Borders:

You know, are, you know, she might try to teach you something or you

Marcus Borders:

may try to teach her something, or you got the, you know, the younger

Marcus Borders:

ones who are teaching new dances.

Marcus Borders:

That's another beautiful thing is I've had experiences where

Marcus Borders:

DJ has set the stage for.

Marcus Borders:

A lot of the line dance groups and crews are the individuals to come up and

Marcus Borders:

say, Hey, we have this new line dance.

Marcus Borders:

Let's teach the class.

Marcus Borders:

And he allows them to teach the class.

Marcus Borders:

So that's spanned across ages as well.

Marcus Borders:

Um, so I think it is, I think about it being like a holiday, like the

Marcus Borders:

a Memorial Day celebration, 4th of July, and you have your aunties and

Marcus Borders:

your cousins all in the same space.

Marcus Borders:

And again, they span from being 18 years old to 58 years old, and we're

Marcus Borders:

all just there to have a good time.

Sir Daniel:

I love that.

Jay Ray:

You know, what's coming up for me, and I don't, I don't think there's

Jay Ray:

a, a question in this, but what I'm feeling as you are reflecting is that.

Jay Ray:

And this is really, science of it is really, I think, it feels like it's

Jay Ray:

just kind of like Black culture, like the soul of who we are in so many ways.

Jay Ray:

'cause what I'm hearing from you is like, no, we going to put our own

Jay Ray:

flavor on a thing and when we get together, like that idea of all of us

Jay Ray:

being together doing the same thing.

Jay Ray:

At the same time lifts us up.

Jay Ray:

I have this great story, it's a dance related story.

Jay Ray:

Um, I was at, uh, uh, Tambo, which I don't know that they

Jay Ray:

still do Tambo in, in Atlanta.

Jay Ray:

I know that Stan Zeff does some things, but, um, oh, shoot.

Jay Ray:

Who was the dj?

Jay Ray:

Um, I can't remember who the DJ was at the moment, but what I do know is this, um.

Jay Ray:

We were all together.

Jay Ray:

There's 200, 300 of us on the dance floor at the same time.

Jay Ray:

And um, the song that was playing is a song called Kill.

Jay Ray:

It's called, um, it's a take on thriller.

Jay Ray:

It's like a remix, but it's like a house remix of it.

Jay Ray:

And this song is playing.

Jay Ray:

Everybody's getting their life and the DJ.

Jay Ray:

Without warning, in Prince's controversy.

Jay Ray:

And this moment happened where the room left the like literally we

Jay Ray:

all jumped at the same time because it was the downbeat of the song.

Jay Ray:

And then it was the upbeat of like controversy, just like slamming in.

Jay Ray:

We all jumped.

Jay Ray:

I will never forget just that moment of us like.

Jay Ray:

Oh, oh, we're doing this.

Jay Ray:

We're together now we're, we're family.

Jay Ray:

'Cause then I know that you see when somebody steps to the left and they

Jay Ray:

do a spin, you like, oh, I see that.

Jay Ray:

I see that.

Jay Ray:

Can I do that?

Jay Ray:

Yes.

Jay Ray:

Gimme a minute.

Jay Ray:

I'm gonna do it next.

Marcus Borders:

Yeah, definitely.

Marcus Borders:

That's, that's the biggest thing.

Marcus Borders:

And so physically I try to cater to my mobility.

Marcus Borders:

It's like that with skating.

Marcus Borders:

So I, when people talk, ask me about skating, I. Tell them I can skate.

Marcus Borders:

Now, I'm not aging myself in saying that I'm old, but I'll use the

Marcus Borders:

example of like, I'm like a classic Lincoln or a classic Cadillac.

Marcus Borders:

I'm slow off the line, but once I go, I'm, I can be fast and I'm smooth, but

Marcus Borders:

don't, I'm not out there doing back flips.

Marcus Borders:

I'm not doing splits.

Marcus Borders:

Um, so the same thing with line dancing.

Marcus Borders:

There are very few dances that I'll get out there and

Marcus Borders:

really add my own spin to it.

Marcus Borders:

I kind of do the, what some we call extra just because I,

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

I don't want to end up in the hospital.

Jay Ray:

Yes.

Marcus Borders:

my ankles, I trust my knees, but the times when I'm am able

Marcus Borders:

to add that extra flavor of flare and or I can catch and it fits into my rhythm,

Jay Ray:

Hmm.

Marcus Borders:

a magical feeling I feel like that is what.

Marcus Borders:

Is baked into that freedom that I've been speaking about and kind

Marcus Borders:

of the comradery aspect of it.

Marcus Borders:

I'll even give you an example of last night's experience of me line dancing.

Marcus Borders:

Um, they'll place, uh, like it's one of the, uh.

Marcus Borders:

Line dance is called Chugga Chug.

Marcus Borders:

I can't think of the name of the song that it's played to, but that's the dance

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

Me.

Marcus Borders:

And this wasn't the only one you were hear, it's it's, it's

Marcus Borders:

like juveniles back that ass up

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

where you, you know, dance floor and you'll

Marcus Borders:

see people just run to the floor

Jay Ray:

Yes.

Marcus Borders:

So.

Marcus Borders:

Depending on the line dances, it could be maybe five folks just kind of standing

Marcus Borders:

around, maybe doing a little dance.

Marcus Borders:

You play a certain song and you see 50 people come from all directions

Marcus Borders:

and they either feel the floor or they get up in a line and we

Marcus Borders:

just all, it starts all in sync.

Marcus Borders:

It's like a little snake motion.

Jay Ray:

Wow.

Sir Daniel:

Wow.

Sir Daniel:

Talk to I, I, listen, I believe it.

Sir Daniel:

I I can see it in the people's faces.

Sir Daniel:

Talk to us about how Atlanta.

Sir Daniel:

The room

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

you are, you know, clearly you are Atlanta through and through.

Sir Daniel:

How does Atlanta show up for you?

Sir Daniel:

Exactly.

Sir Daniel:

How does Atlanta show up in spaces like this with you and what is Atlanta's,

Sir Daniel:

how has Atlanta been an influence on you and in the way that you approach,

Sir Daniel:

not just line dancing, but your love of music and you know, how you

Sir Daniel:

approach that area of your life?

Marcus Borders:

So I think, I haven't done the studies of it to see its

Marcus Borders:

origins and things of that nature, but.

Marcus Borders:

Baked into line dancing in Southern soul.

Marcus Borders:

So I think it's inherent that being a southern boy, a man of the south, that

Marcus Borders:

I. Love doing line dances because it's kind of a part of the culture there.

Marcus Borders:

Um, I won't say that I bake Atlanta directly into it, but it's there.

Marcus Borders:

I'm trying to think of some moments where I've heard a little bit of Atlanta bass.

Marcus Borders:

Um, I think the DJ aspect of it is what kind of caters to it, because I

Marcus Borders:

noticed the, um, between the few DJs that I've experienced with line dancing.

Marcus Borders:

I've seen them outside of that space in their different formats

Marcus Borders:

and they couldn't go toe to toe.

Marcus Borders:

It feels like it's 1995 during Freaknik, um, based on the music that they play.

Marcus Borders:

me and music and Atlanta will go hand in hand during skating.

Marcus Borders:

Skating is inherently Atlanta.

Marcus Borders:

Um, all day, every day I'll watch things on threads, Instagram, um, and Facebook.

Marcus Borders:

You'll see someone pop up and say, I wanna get back into skating.

Marcus Borders:

And they live in the Midwest, somewhere where there's a

Marcus Borders:

rink maybe three hours away.

Marcus Borders:

And you might get an experience there.

Marcus Borders:

Atlanta, I can literally skate in multiple rinks seven days a week and

Marcus Borders:

not repeat the same rink and have a likelihood of hearing a very good dj.

Marcus Borders:

And so for me, when I think of the musical aspect of it, I

Marcus Borders:

think of the DJs knowing the, uh.

Marcus Borders:

Again, we could talk for hours about skating, but within that aspect of

Marcus Borders:

there are different, uh, components and different styles like a TL

Marcus Borders:

riding and a TL stepping where you would hear certain Atlanta music

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

with it.

Marcus Borders:

I think of movie a TL and what the skating movie, what, uh,

Marcus Borders:

that meant to the culture.

Marcus Borders:

That is the truth.

Marcus Borders:

I tell anybody any night, if you go skate at Cascade on a Sunday night, you're

Marcus Borders:

gonna feel like you're in the, uh, the set of a TL because it really is like that.

Marcus Borders:

So.

Marcus Borders:

I can't say that I've really seen Atlanta itself break out in it, but I have seen

Marcus Borders:

its growth and I think the growth as far as the access to be able to line dance,

Marcus Borders:

trying to bring it back full circle, um.

Marcus Borders:

Has happened because of our political climate.

Marcus Borders:

Early on, Adrian, you mentioned how around 2024, um, it was

Marcus Borders:

kind of this resurgence of it,

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

think it has been amplified because of the last couple of

Marcus Borders:

years of just our political and social climate that we've been experiencing.

Marcus Borders:

And you will see the memes of, you know, chaos is happening in Washington

Jay Ray:

Yes.

Jay Ray:

Yeah,

Marcus Borders:

enough to go to the grill.

Jay Ray:

we,

Marcus Borders:

We gonna

Jay Ray:

we gonna get our joy somewhere.

Marcus Borders:

And that's where I think being that Atlanta is, uh,

Marcus Borders:

I still call Atlanta a Black city.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

Um, you've seen a prevalence of the line dances pop up.

Marcus Borders:

There's not, um, to the point where I try not to stray outside of my norm

Marcus Borders:

of where, of, of the parties that I go to because it will probably become

Marcus Borders:

overwhelming for me to keep up with the line dance crews, the groups,

Marcus Borders:

the DJs, and where they're partying.

Marcus Borders:

I try to stick to what I know

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

can get lost in it.

Marcus Borders:

It's just, um.

Marcus Borders:

I don't wanna call it a saturation of it, but the growth has really

Marcus Borders:

boomed, and I think it's because of the type of city that Atlanta is.

Jay Ray:

Oh, oh.

Jay Ray:

There's so many questions in that, but, um, the first question I do want

Jay Ray:

to ask, because I think this is, you have alluded to this actually several

Jay Ray:

times as you talk about both skating and line dancing from your perspective.

Jay Ray:

Um, I'm a beat drop kind of dude.

Jay Ray:

So like there are songs that just appeal to me, like I know if I like a song like,

Jay Ray:

pretty quickly For you, what makes a good song to skate to and to line dance to?

Jay Ray:

Like what do you, what do you, what is that for you?

Marcus Borders:

Okay.

Marcus Borders:

For me, skating, I am a slow set person, so I gave that metaphor of

Jay Ray:

Hmm.

Marcus Borders:

kind of, you know.

Marcus Borders:

I'm a cruiser.

Marcus Borders:

I skate smoothly.

Marcus Borders:

I'm not

Jay Ray:

Yeah, yeah,

Marcus Borders:

lot.

Marcus Borders:

Um, yeah, so, and I'm also a nineties r and BI, I say aficionado or

Marcus Borders:

connoisseur, uh, for the most part.

Marcus Borders:

And so you give me some Johnny Gill, some Keith sweat,

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

some,

Sir Daniel:

Some cut close.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Jay Ray:

Cut close.

Jay Ray:

Probably is great to skate to.

Marcus Borders:

Some surrender.

Marcus Borders:

Some surrender.

Marcus Borders:

close.

Marcus Borders:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

You know, who can I run to,

Jay Ray:

Okay.

Marcus Borders:

maybe that's how the, the Atlanta gets baked into it.

Marcus Borders:

A little face, you know,

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

You know, I'm thinking about our quiet storm moments.

Marcus Borders:

That's, uh, what speaks to me on the skating end, the things

Marcus Borders:

that drop, um, for line dancing.

Marcus Borders:

It's really almost like a video game for me.

Marcus Borders:

It's in the sense of, because.

Marcus Borders:

I've done so many, and some of the songs are not necessarily the, um,

Marcus Borders:

songs that you will hear often based on their genres or who made the songs.

Marcus Borders:

They may not be popular outside of line dancing.

Marcus Borders:

So I've lost track of associating a song with a dance.

Sir Daniel:

Okay.

Marcus Borders:

can I conquer that dance?

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

a video game.

Marcus Borders:

It's can I achieve this?

Marcus Borders:

Can I, I saw them do that spin, can I do that spin?

Marcus Borders:

Or is there a normal standard way of doing it?

Marcus Borders:

So that's how um, the songs kind of hit me or move me.

Marcus Borders:

But I will say.

Marcus Borders:

There are certain songs, uh, that trigger nostalgia out of me are, uh, you know,

Marcus Borders:

dare I say, there are favorite songs that allow me to really sharpen the

Marcus Borders:

knife of my skills, and that's both with skating and line dancing is I will run

Marcus Borders:

to the floor, I put my skates on just to see if I can do the same thing, if

Marcus Borders:

not better, to that particular song.

Jay Ray:

Okay.

Sir Daniel:

Let's stay here with music for a second.

Sir Daniel:

Talk to me, talk to dj Sir Daniel and, and all of my DJ friends.

Sir Daniel:

What do you want us.

Sir Daniel:

Outside of the, so we, we know that when you go to these, um, to

Sir Daniel:

your group dance, group line dance, um, sessions and skating, we, we

Sir Daniel:

know that's what you came for.

Sir Daniel:

That's what the DJ is gonna give, talk to the rest of us.

Sir Daniel:

Like in a, in a normal set, what do you want?

Sir Daniel:

Us to slide more of those, um, Southern Soul songs in there.

Sir Daniel:

Would you, are we playing enough line dances?

Sir Daniel:

Are we not playing?

Sir Daniel:

Talk to the, talk to the DJs right now.

Sir Daniel:

Mm.

Marcus Borders:

Yeah, so I'm thinking about a couple of events in the city

Marcus Borders:

that I've been attending over the last few years that are just solely

Marcus Borders:

supposed to be about the dancing.

Marcus Borders:

Um, not about the sections and all of that.

Marcus Borders:

Um, they can be hit or miss.

Marcus Borders:

And so for me, I know that I'm looking for if, like, if I go out tonight,

Marcus Borders:

it's Friday, and I go out to a club.

Marcus Borders:

Um.

Marcus Borders:

I just came to dance and

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

I know I'm not the only one on the,

Sir Daniel:

I just.

Marcus Borders:

I'm not the only one that's on the dance

Marcus Borders:

floor, so I believe in fairness,

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

we're probably gonna get some sort of contemporary, uh,

Marcus Borders:

hop, probably a little throwback to, you know, depending on who they're

Marcus Borders:

trying to cater to, they might go as far back as the eighties or the

Marcus Borders:

seventies down into the nineties on up.

Marcus Borders:

I don't take me on a haphazard journey.

Marcus Borders:

What I mean by that is I can see it with skating and I love, love, love.

Marcus Borders:

In Atlanta, our skate, our skating rinks are spoiled with

Marcus Borders:

a lot of the DJs that we have.

Marcus Borders:

'cause they do their crafts well.

Marcus Borders:

But I can pull up to a session and I can know when that DJ is trying

Marcus Borders:

to experiment versus trying to.

Marcus Borders:

F Skating is a very tough crowd to

Sir Daniel:

Okay.

Marcus Borders:

play a skating session like you do a club session.

Marcus Borders:

So there are certain moments, like after a slow set, you expect to do a slow walk or

Marcus Borders:

something a little faster after that long.

Marcus Borders:

To answer your question, Adrian,

Marcus Borders:

cater to your audience and be very careful with your transitions.

Marcus Borders:

Make them make sense.

Marcus Borders:

What I mean by that is there's a, I think, a very good and effective DJ kind of like.

Marcus Borders:

Johnny, what you mentioned as far as that experience of like the crowd

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

up, that is a, to me, a rare moment that a DJ holds that power.

Marcus Borders:

Meaning that they may have sprinkled in a little bit of e experimentation,

Marcus Borders:

but they knew that they had the crowd based off of their reaction.

Marcus Borders:

So don't be stale.

Marcus Borders:

Watch your audience.

Marcus Borders:

I think that's the key in DJing is to watch your audience and

Marcus Borders:

to kind of shift as needed.

Marcus Borders:

Be, uh, going back be, when I say be careful with those transitions, I'm

Marcus Borders:

thinking about Apple's latest update where they try to call themselves to be

Marcus Borders:

like a mixer and they put like 45 seconds over the last song to match the BPM.

Marcus Borders:

I don't want to hear, I don't want to know halfway through the first song

Marcus Borders:

that I'm listening to, oh, they're getting ready to play juvenile.

Marcus Borders:

They're

Jay Ray:

Right.

Marcus Borders:

to play this because you have slowly trickled

Marcus Borders:

that other song in there.

Marcus Borders:

Just, just let the story breathe, let the music breathe.

Marcus Borders:

I think that's the best suggestion is let the music breathe.

Jay Ray:

Mm.

Sir Daniel:

Thank you for that

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Sir Daniel:

in the communities.

Sir Daniel:

Yes.

Sir Daniel:

Thank you for that.

Jay Ray:

Yeah, you said a word in there too, like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jay Ray:

There's some, there's, there's some good ministry

Sir Daniel:

Mm-hmm.

Jay Ray:

you just said.

Sir Daniel:

Transitions are so important.

Jay Ray:

yes.

Jay Ray:

Um, so now, okay, so talk to me now, as a person who loves to dance, right?

Marcus Borders:

Yeah.

Jay Ray:

Um, it has rhythm and could do all the, and could do the

Jay Ray:

things, but line dancing, literally bog, like often boggles my brain.

Jay Ray:

Ooh, before I ask this question, pause, is there a line dance that was hard for

Jay Ray:

you to learn before we talk about me?

Marcus Borders:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

so line dancing is like math

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

I, even though I have an educational background,

Marcus Borders:

math is not my strong suit.

Marcus Borders:

And so my brain literally does this when I see dances for the first time, and

Marcus Borders:

I just kind of stand on the side like,

Marcus Borders:

Um, so I feel you on that.

Marcus Borders:

Uh, miss Tamias, the Tamia Shuffle.

Sir Daniel:

Oh.

Jay Ray:

baby, I saw that thing happen and I was like, now,

Sir Daniel:

People, hell, there are people that that gives people hell to do

Sir Daniel:

a lot of times to, and that's like, that song is like, what, six years old now?

Marcus Borders:

The song.

Marcus Borders:

The song is the, okay, so the song and the dance are actually old.

Sir Daniel:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

I can go back.

Marcus Borders:

So I grew up, uh, my, um, mom has a, a friend, family friend.

Marcus Borders:

Their family's from Detroit, so they have all the stepping and everything.

Jay Ray:

Yo, Midwest love, love, lover, stepping in the line day.

Marcus Borders:

So I was at her birthday party.

Marcus Borders:

It was I think her 50th, and this was, I'm aging her, which.

Marcus Borders:

I'm having a brain

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

Uh, this was probably back in 2014, maybe 2015, and I

Marcus Borders:

watched her and her family, they queued up to me as, um, can't get enough.

Marcus Borders:

And they were just out there shuffling and it just looked, you just, it looks like

Marcus Borders:

they were just snapping their fingers.

Marcus Borders:

That's just how simple it looked to them.

Marcus Borders:

And I'm like, I will fall over everybody and knock everybody down if I try it.

Marcus Borders:

So.

Marcus Borders:

Fast, forward to, I guess, that resurgence that we were talking about earlier.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

of 23 or

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

and I was like, I'm tired of hearing this song

Marcus Borders:

at the club or at the bar.

Marcus Borders:

At the baby shower at the wedding, and I just have to sit on the side.

Marcus Borders:

I won't end on it.

Marcus Borders:

And it took me about y'all, it took me about a year and a half to

Jay Ray:

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

Um, and I think I'm segueing into

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

as far as

Jay Ray:

Like how?

Jay Ray:

Like how would I do it?

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

I'm gonna keep bridging skating into it, that one of the keys

Marcus Borders:

to skating well is to skate horribly.

Marcus Borders:

First is

Jay Ray:

Ooh,

Marcus Borders:

with falling.

Jay Ray:

you better.

Jay Ray:

You better preach.

Marcus Borders:

with line dancing, with line dancing, I had to be okay with.

Marcus Borders:

on people's toes or standing kind of off to the side so that I'm not, I'm,

Marcus Borders:

I'm tall, so I have a decent wing span.

Marcus Borders:

If I'm in the middle doing all of that, I'm going, I am gonna knock some people

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

Yeah.

Sir Daniel:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

being okay with not looking like you have it together

Marcus Borders:

because a few things are going to happen.

Marcus Borders:

Re reputa, uh.

Marcus Borders:

Repetition is going to kick in and you, it's gonna become muscle memory

Marcus Borders:

and depending on how you learn, that's important for me because I don't learn

Marcus Borders:

by people saying, do it like I do it.

Marcus Borders:

But someone could possibly come over to you and show and who's watching you.

Marcus Borders:

'cause nine times outta 10, somebody's watching you mess up.

Marcus Borders:

They're gonna say, oh, step slowly like this.

Marcus Borders:

Instead of doing it fast like that.

Marcus Borders:

The way that I picked up the Tamia shuffle, there's um, an Instagram reel.

Marcus Borders:

And I to watch, uh, several examples, but this gentleman, he basically

Marcus Borders:

chopped and screwed the dance.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

All the way down.

Marcus Borders:

and it was like a light bulb clicked, and ever since summer

Marcus Borders:

again, I think it was summer 23, I had it ever since, and it was just fine

Marcus Borders:

tuning and going back to what I said earlier, every time it happened last

Marcus Borders:

night and it's actually getting the Tamia shuffle is becoming one of 'em.

Marcus Borders:

Within the line dance, trail ride culture of kind of one of like the easy ones

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

everybody knows it.

Marcus Borders:

And so last night when I heard it, I ran to the floor because there was

Marcus Borders:

my opportunity to sharpen my skills and to make sure that I still had it.

Marcus Borders:

And this is after this point, two or three years of just continuously doing it.

Marcus Borders:

So that's, that's how I got it, was.

Marcus Borders:

Looking awful in the beginning

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

saying, excuse me, I'm sorry.

Marcus Borders:

I'm so sorry.

Marcus Borders:

'cause you bumped into somebody, you went, left when you should have went right.

Marcus Borders:

Um, kind of laughing it off, hoping that you didn't offend anybody.

Marcus Borders:

And then after a while, you, you realize that spin that you, that was confusing.

Marcus Borders:

You got it.

Marcus Borders:

Or you realize you're not tripping over your feet, uh, like you were before.

Jay Ray:

So you actually did, you have so eloquently, I'm

Jay Ray:

sure, explained my hesitation.

Jay Ray:

I do not like.

Jay Ray:

I'm okay with messing up.

Jay Ray:

That's okay.

Jay Ray:

But I. When I'm dancing on the dance floor, I actually have, uh, I create

Jay Ray:

my own circle around myself and I work very hard 'cause I'm a big guy.

Jay Ray:

So I worked very hard to not encroach on anyone's space, right?

Jay Ray:

So I stay in my space.

Jay Ray:

And the idea of line dancing yes, is if I go in the wrong direction or I spin or

Jay Ray:

they're coming at me, or I come at them and I hit them, I immediately shut down.

Jay Ray:

And I like want to go and like cry in a corner.

Jay Ray:

And you're like, no, give it a second.

Jay Ray:

Like part of it's part of the experience.

Jay Ray:

That's why I don't skate either.

Jay Ray:

You also explain why I don't skate.

Jay Ray:

I fell one time and it was like, oh, you gotta fall.

Jay Ray:

Like get up and do it again.

Jay Ray:

I'm like,

Marcus Borders:

called

Jay Ray:

no, I'm going to eat pizza.

Sir Daniel:

Yeah, that whole, I, I'm at the age where I'm just like, I don't know.

Sir Daniel:

That fall especially falling on your wrist.

Sir Daniel:

Oh, especially, yeah.

Sir Daniel:

I think I think about it because I, I use my hands so much,

Jay Ray:

Oh

Sir Daniel:

the turntables and everything that falling and, 'cause

Sir Daniel:

I know immediately when you fall, the first defense is to put your

Sir Daniel:

hands out, to brace your, to break a fall or to brace yourself forth.

Marcus Borders:

Supposed

Sir Daniel:

They say you're not supposed to do that.

Marcus Borders:

I fell, uh, not Tuesday this week, but Tuesday of last week.

Marcus Borders:

I have, uh, I'm not gonna show up, but a bandaid right here

Marcus Borders:

because when I was learning how to skate, I messed my elbows up.

Marcus Borders:

But one of the things about falling and paying those wood taxes is

Marcus Borders:

you have to learn how to fall.

Marcus Borders:

And so if you know you're gonna fall, you have to just kind of lean into it.

Marcus Borders:

I think the only thing that you should brace when you fall is your head

Marcus Borders:

and as far as stiffening up so it doesn't hit the floor, but everything

Marcus Borders:

else just kind of collapsed almost.

Marcus Borders:

Um, I. was something I was gonna mention as far as the dance Oh.

Marcus Borders:

Classes.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

So, I felt the same sense of, I'll say embarrassment

Marcus Borders:

and fear of encroaching on people's because you see their freedom and their

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

wanna mess that up.

Marcus Borders:

And to be honest, you can tell that you know the aunties, you will

Marcus Borders:

piss them off sometimes when you go left, they'll just kind of, alright.

Jay Ray:

It's like spades to them.

Marcus Borders:

You'll get

Sir Daniel:

Oh, perfect.

Marcus Borders:

too.

Sir Daniel:

Yep.

Marcus Borders:

been moved out of the way before.

Marcus Borders:

Um.

Sir Daniel:

Get it from this table.

Marcus Borders:

Yeah, that's where the classes came in at, uh, DJ Trail.

Marcus Borders:

Tsunami made the analog, and not just him, because there's, um, locked

Marcus Borders:

and loaded, that's another crew.

Marcus Borders:

They've hosted classes too, is those spaces being created that made it safe,

Jay Ray:

Mm.

Marcus Borders:

um, to mess up because it was kind of a low effort

Marcus Borders:

environment to where, Hey, I'm gonna teach y'all all of these dances.

Marcus Borders:

They know their craft.

Marcus Borders:

Not only are they effective as a dj, but they're effective as an educator.

Marcus Borders:

And like I. I keep shouting him out because he created that space

Marcus Borders:

so that I didn't have to tap into all of my other, I call them isms.

Marcus Borders:

My

Jay Ray:

Hmm.

Marcus Borders:

as far as being social, um, to worry about

Marcus Borders:

encroaching and infringing on people's environments, he made it safe enough

Marcus Borders:

for me to come in there, um, to where he's not embarrassing you.

Marcus Borders:

If you mess up, are the, the people who are part of the crowd are not

Marcus Borders:

embarrassing you or making you feel a way because you didn't get a step.

Jay Ray:

Hmm.

Marcus Borders:

and he's giving you feedback on.

Marcus Borders:

How to correct something and he or he picks up, like he, he'll make

Marcus Borders:

a joke about the advanced crew.

Marcus Borders:

You know, they're doing the spins and the kicks when all you, all you're just

Marcus Borders:

supposed to do is clap your hands and

Jay Ray:

Right.

Marcus Borders:

we don't have time for that.

Marcus Borders:

That's the AP version.

Marcus Borders:

Let's do it the regular way first so that everyone can pick it up.

Marcus Borders:

So that's really what.

Marcus Borders:

Um, made me comfortable, um, to go to like the club settings to where

Marcus Borders:

all they're doing is just dancing.

Sir Daniel:

Okay.

Marcus Borders:

stand to the side

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

what I've als, um, and kind of observe or what I've

Marcus Borders:

learned, learned or more so noticed is, again, can't, I can't tell you

Marcus Borders:

the, the name of the dance, can't tell you the name of the song, but most

Marcus Borders:

line dances and trail ride experiences have like the same seven to 10 steps.

Marcus Borders:

You know, it's, it's same combination, of movements just

Marcus Borders:

packaged differently for each song and probably at a different speed.

Marcus Borders:

And I noticed that I can pick up a dance that I didn't.

Marcus Borders:

I know just by watching the crowd, so long as it's not allowed to hopping

Marcus Borders:

and spinning, and I can jump in and get it pretty well the first time.

Marcus Borders:

Now beforehand, before I started the classes last summer, I

Marcus Borders:

wouldn't have been able to do that.

Sir Daniel:

Wow.

Sir Daniel:

You know, as we, as we begin to wrap up, what's coming to mind for me,

Sir Daniel:

what I'm interested to hear from you, Marcus, is I'm hearing a, a philosophy.

Sir Daniel:

I. For life.

Sir Daniel:

So I want to hear from you, what has this experience, from the roller skating

Sir Daniel:

to the line dancing, what kind of philosophy have you developed for your

Sir Daniel:

life, where you are right now and where you want to go for the rest of your life?

Sir Daniel:

What have you developed as your philosophy, your mantra, um, moving

Sir Daniel:

forward that dancing has taught you?

Marcus Borders:

Keep your safe spaces sacred.

Marcus Borders:

Protect them.

Marcus Borders:

Um, going, you know, I, I've been taught, I've been married, I've been

Marcus Borders:

married to skating in this conversation.

Marcus Borders:

Um, and that's be because of how important it is to me to, and I mentioned

Marcus Borders:

as far as keeping it sacred or, or keeping, keeping it sanctity safe, uh,

Marcus Borders:

because I will schedule my day around.

Marcus Borders:

My ability to skate or I will schedule my ability around to go line dance.

Marcus Borders:

Meaning that if someone's like, Hey, can we meet at this time?

Marcus Borders:

Oh no, I have class at this time.

Marcus Borders:

Or, you know, I'm not inflexible about it, but I will make sure that people

Marcus Borders:

know my patterns to the, uh, to the point, to know he's probably out line

Marcus Borders:

dancing or he's probably out skating.

Marcus Borders:

Um, your work will try to encroach or infringe on those things.

Marcus Borders:

And so I prioritize it.

Marcus Borders:

Um, we don't have even have enough time for me to dig deep into what.

Marcus Borders:

Both line dance and skating do for me emotionally, mentally,

Marcus Borders:

spiritually, and physically.

Marcus Borders:

And so that's why I think I put the umbrella term of protecting it

Marcus Borders:

above all of that because of how important it is to me, of what it

Marcus Borders:

does for me on a social level of me navigating, trying to meet new people.

Marcus Borders:

Um, trying to come out of my shell in certain ways.

Marcus Borders:

Dancing overall allows me to shine in that way because a lot of people, if they

Marcus Borders:

don't know me, they'll look at me as, um.

Marcus Borders:

They'll pick up my introversion, but they'll think that I'm meek and

Marcus Borders:

mild-mannered, but I kind of light up on a dance floor, on the dance floor.

Marcus Borders:

And that's, um, I like for that aspect of myself, um, which skating does as well.

Marcus Borders:

I like for that aspect of myself to be seen publicly so that I'm not just looked

Marcus Borders:

at as quiet, meek, mild-mannered, Marcus.

Jay Ray:

Hmm.

Jay Ray:

Wow.

Sir Daniel:

Thank you for sharing that.

Jay Ray:

Thank you man.

Jay Ray:

Um, so many things, uh, so I I, I, I think you have already primed and hopefully

Jay Ray:

Marcus you will come back 'cause, okay.

Jay Ray:

So Sir Daniel and I have an idea.

Marcus Borders:

Uhhuh.

Jay Ray:

hope you'll come back in person because you gonna have to

Jay Ray:

teach me and the other cute points crew how to line dance something.

Jay Ray:

But we can also have this conversation because you actually picked up on

Jay Ray:

something that was like, oh my gosh, I want to go here, but we do not have time

Jay Ray:

to go here, but I want us to go here.

Jay Ray:

And I think doing it in person, potentially in Atlanta would

Jay Ray:

be a great way to have this conversation and continue it because.

Jay Ray:

What you are describing is, I think, so important to, uh, Black folks

Jay Ray:

communicating and continuing to like be able to have these conversations.

Jay Ray:

And these are languages, these dances, these experiences are languages that

Jay Ray:

we can carry forward into the future.

Jay Ray:

And I don't want us to lose it.

Jay Ray:

And that's why I'm like child, now I gotta line dance child because I

Jay Ray:

gotta be part of the conversation and I have to teach it to, now I gotta

Jay Ray:

teach the stuff to my little cousins.

Jay Ray:

They gotta know.

Marcus Borders:

And I think that goes back to the earlier question of the age aspect

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

that's the beautiful thing is the resurgence

Marcus Borders:

of it pulled in the teenagers.

Marcus Borders:

I have my cousin, he's in college now.

Marcus Borders:

He turns, uh.

Marcus Borders:

He's either 18, he's 18 or 19,

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Marcus Borders:

uh, he's seen me line dance at a wedding before and he will

Marcus Borders:

send us videos of him practicing.

Marcus Borders:

Um, so knowing that the kids are doing, I go to an elementary school

Marcus Borders:

and play certain songs and you

Jay Ray:

Yeah.

Marcus Borders:

babies just light up.

Marcus Borders:

So it is.

Marcus Borders:

Definitely a tradition that's passed down and it's very interesting.

Marcus Borders:

Social media helps, but it is very interesting to see how these things

Marcus Borders:

continue on down to the newer dances.

Marcus Borders:

All the way back to the electric slide are all the other cultural

Marcus Borders:

dances that we've had historically over the last several decades.

Jay Ray:

Man.

Jay Ray:

so, uh, Marcus, if there is someone who is listening to this conversation

Jay Ray:

and they're in Atlanta and they're like, I want to take a class,

Jay Ray:

where would you send them off risk?

Marcus Borders:

So they need to check out DJ Trael Tsunami page.

Marcus Borders:

Phenomenal dj.

Marcus Borders:

Um, kind of, uh, I won't put a placement on his format because he's

Marcus Borders:

like, he does every type of, um, music genre aspect as far as his format.

Marcus Borders:

But DJ Trael, T-R-A-E-L Tsunami, T-S-U-N-A-M-I, um, he hosts classes,

Marcus Borders:

um, even if he's not hosting a class, come out to his, his, uh.

Marcus Borders:

sets in his nights.

Marcus Borders:

Um, I was there last night.

Marcus Borders:

Um, it's a great, great spot.

Marcus Borders:

Another DJ that I know will host classes, or at least he DJs at classes, and you

Marcus Borders:

can follow their social media platforms to see the flyers, is, uh, DJ Soufside,

Marcus Borders:

so DJ, S-O-U-F-S-I-D-E, DJ Soufside.

Jay Ray:

Awesome.

Jay Ray:

Ah,

Sir Daniel:

I love that.

Jay Ray:

connect with you?

Sir Daniel:

Yes.

Marcus Borders:

Social media, we're talking about the fun stuff.

Marcus Borders:

So, uh, just connect with me on Instagram.

Marcus Borders:

Instagram is still my place of choice, um, @quietasitskept.

Marcus Borders:

So Q-U-I-E-T-A-S-I-T-S-K-E-P-T.

Sir Daniel:

There it is.

Sir Daniel:

Listen, thank you so much for sharing this part of your life

Sir Daniel:

with the Queue Points audience.

Sir Daniel:

Um, as I stated, this is a part of what we do.

Sir Daniel:

We celebrate Black music history and there's no music.

Sir Daniel:

There's nobody there to make dance, and this is all part of, it's

Sir Daniel:

just part of the bloodline of what this country is ingrained with.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

part of the bloodline, you know, from, I see them, they

Sir Daniel:

do line dances in the continent.

Jay Ray:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Daniel:

do line dances all over the diaspora on the different islands, and you

Sir Daniel:

can't tell me that it's not passed down.

Sir Daniel:

Through our blood, our bloodlines.

Sir Daniel:

So thank you so much for sharing that with us and for helping us round out this

Sir Daniel:

Black History Month and um, you know, taking Queue Points on another adventure.

Sir Daniel:

And just thank you.

Sir Daniel:

Thank you for being a friend.

Sir Daniel:

Borders.

Jay Ray:

for being a friend.

Marcus Borders:

forward to this conversation and glad to just share the

Marcus Borders:

joy that I get from, from being Black.

Marcus Borders:

That's just really what it is.

Sir Daniel:

That's it.

Jay Ray:

Oh my goodness, y'all, thank y'all so much for hanging out with us.

Jay Ray:

If you can see all three of our faces and you can hear our voices, make sure

Jay Ray:

that you subscribe wherever you are.

Jay Ray:

Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your colleagues, because if you

Jay Ray:

enjoy Queue Points, chances are they will enjoy Queue Points as well.

Jay Ray:

And it's a great free way.

Jay Ray:

To, uh, support the show.

Jay Ray:

Another way that you can support the show is by becoming a member.

Jay Ray:

You can visit our website at queuepoints.com become a member

Jay Ray:

and you get some PS if you become a paid member of the show.

Jay Ray:

And you can listen to all of our episodes.

Jay Ray:

We have, we are coming up.

Jay Ray:

We are so close to 250 episodes.

Jay Ray:

It's crazy.

Jay Ray:

Sir Daniel, we are getting so close.

Sir Daniel:

We are line dancing our way to.

Jay Ray:

My goodness.

Jay Ray:

And so y'all can check out all of those episodes.

Jay Ray:

You can check us out on Substack.

Jay Ray:

You can um, shop our store at store.queuepoints.com.

Jay Ray:

We appreciate y'all and we love y'all.

Sir Daniel:

It is.

Sir Daniel:

Like I say, in every episode in this life, you have a choice.

Sir Daniel:

You can either pick up the needle or you could let the record play.

Sir Daniel:

I am Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray:

And my name is Jay Ray

Sir Daniel:

That

Jay Ray:

Dr. Marcus Borders.

Sir Daniel:

and this has been Queue Points podcast, dropping

Sir Daniel:

the needle on Black music history.

Sir Daniel:

We will see you on the next go round.

Sir Daniel:

Now two steps to the left.

Jay Ray:

Peace, y'all.

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About the Podcast

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Queue Points

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About your hosts

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DJ Sir Daniel

DJ Sir Daniel is a DJ/Selector and part of Atlanta's, all-vinyl crew, Wax Fundamentals. Co-host of the Queue Points podcast, he is an advocate for DJ culture and is passionate about creating atmospheres of inclusivity and jubilation from a Black perspective.

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Jay Ray

Johnnie Ray Kornegay III (Jay Ray) is a podcast consultant and co-host and producer of Queue Points, the Ambie Award-nominated podcast that drops the needle on Black music history. In addition to his duties at Queue Points, he is the Deputy Director of Strategy and Impact for CNP (Counter Narrative Project). A photographer, creative consultant and social commentator, Jay Ray's work is centered around a commitment to telling full and honest stories about communities often ignored.