Boots on the ground: From tiktok to trail ride tradition

When Tre Little two-stepped in cowboy boots at the BET Awards preshow this summer, he wasn’t just performing—he was riding the wave of a cultural moment. Alongside southern soul singer 803Fresh, Little delivered the viral sensation “Boots on the Ground,” a trail ride-inspired song whose signature dance has swept across African American gatherings nationwide.

The routine—complete with rhythmic fan clacks—was born casually on a lunch break. But after posting it to TikTok, Little woke up to 100,000 views, a surge that turned him into a sought-after instructor leading line dance classes across the country. “It’s bringing people together to do a dance and share laughter,” he said.

That sense of togetherness is what makes line dancing so enduring, says Cupid, the Louisiana artist behind the 2007 classic “Cupid Shuffle.”

Cupid, recording artist: “I feel that with the new energy toward country music and trail ride music and African American’s presence in it, I think that opened up America’s eyes to what we’ve been doing down in Louisiana and Texas and Mississippi and Alabama for years. … I think their eyes have been opened to line dancing and the unity that it brings.”

Line dances like the “Cha Cha Slide” and “Wobble” have long been staples at weddings and cookouts, but “Boots on the Ground” brought trail ride culture—a mix of horseback processions, zydeco, southern soul, and R&B—to the national stage. Even Beyoncé worked the dance into her record-breaking “Cowboy Carter” tour, while stars like Michelle Obama and Shaquille O’Neal joined in publicly.

For Cupid, the power of line dance is about more than rhythm:

Cupid, recording artist: “We marched together. We stepped together years ago. It’s a sense of unity … I don’t think there’s any other genre more powerful than line dance because it brings people together.”

That power was on display during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when Cupid recalls seeing protesters and police diffuse tensions through the “Cupid Shuffle.”

Cupid, recording artist: “A pivotal moment was during the riots … people who were rioting and the police … they were doing a Cupid Shuffle at that moment to kind of like ease the tensions. That’s when I realized the importance of it, as far as connecting two people that don’t even see eye to eye.”

Now, with “Boots on the Ground” topping Billboard’s R&B charts and trail ride culture trending nationwide, a Southern tradition once rooted in tight-knit Black communities is stepping into the mainstream—one line dance at a time.