By Vicki Brown
Colleton County’s local Scootin’ Boots line-dancing program just turned 25 years old.
As a part of the program, Terry Pournelle, of Walterboro, has been teaching and leading line dancing since its inception.
Pournelle grew up listening to beach music and dancing “The Shag,” South Carolina’s official state dance.
“My love of music and movement began with teaching aerobics classes and then moved into line dance,” said Pournelle. “I would teach a line dance either before or after class … word spread, and I was asked to teach line dance for the Senior Friends at the hospital.” The rest is history.
Pournelle has taught classes in Walterboro, parts of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, New York, Las Vegas, Australia and Chicago. She has created over 50 dances over the years, many of which have been published on several web sites. Pournelle has also trained dancers for competition and choreography competitions.
She has taught students as young as eight up to 96 years old.
Even with a cochlear implant and her problems hearing the music, she has continued to dance, lead others and win national competitions.
Twenty-five years of dancing might get old to some, but not to Pournelle and her Scootin’ Boots team.
“Locally, we are now dancing at the Colleton County Recreation Center on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9:30 with new classes starting in January. I’m proud to say we still hold the price to $20 a month! I also teach aerobics/sculpting/chair exercise classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I’m a senior fitness instructor, so my classes are geared to 50 and older; however, you don’t have to be a senior to take the classes,” said Pournelle.
Pournelle said she loves the group she dances with and helps them learn new choreography from time to time. “We’re not perfect, but we sure do love to dance!” said Pournelle.
