All the Right Moves
The fashion, the steps, the fun, the feeling of community… In her images of a wildly popular queer line-dancing event in Los Angeles, photographer Michelle Groskopf never misses a beat.
Ever been to Stud Country?
The roving line-dancing event pops into cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Palm Springs, and Nashville, filling dance floors and spreading goodwill at every turn. At a glance, it’s a buoyant tribute to LGBTQ cowboy culture, with attendees eagerly decking themselves out in chaps, Stetsons, Western button-downs, Wrangler jeans, boots, and prairie dresses that sway with the music. Stud Country founders Sean Monaghan and Bailey Salisbury dispense swift lessons while novices stumble along and those in the know glide. When a song gets going and the crowd moves in unison, it feels like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. Because you are.
Photographer Michelle Groskopf has been documenting Stud Country‘s queer line-dancing nights in Los Angeles for the past two years, producing a body of work whose exhilaration, connection, and beauty endure long after the last dance. Her images amount to a country & Western re-boot, if you will.
“This project offers a queer rewrite of the iconic country-music imagery from the ’60s and ’70s,” Groskopf explains, “infusing it with contemporary perspectives and inclusivity. By reimagining this nostalgic genre through a modern queer lens, I hope to highlight resilience, joy, and community that thrive within these spaces. Queer bodies, queer joy, queer movement.” —Kristina Feliciano
Stud Country is a buoyant tribute to LGBTQ cowboy culture, with attendees eagerly decking themselves out in chaps, Stetsons, Western button-downs, Wrangler jeans, boots, and pretty prairie dresses that sway with the music.
This project, says Groskopf, ‘offers a queer rewrite of the iconic country-music imagery from the ’60s and ’70s, infusing it with contemporary perspectives and inclusivity.’
‘When a song gets going and the crowd moves in unison, it feels like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. Because you are.
‘Queer bodies, queer joy, queer movement,’ notes Groskopf.
To find out how you can experience Stud Country at a dance floor near you, visit studcountry.us.
To see more of Michelle Groskopf’s work, check out @michellegroskopf.