The Women Keep Dancing

Abstract This chapter explores how urban line dancing functions as a vital social practice among aging Black women, offering joy, exercise, and solidarity in the face of systemic violence and personal loss. Through rich ethnographic narrative, the chapter immerses into intergenerational dance spaces in Chicago and Phoenix, showing how Baby Boomer women redefine ageing and reclaim space through movement. While line dancing affirms heteronormative gender roles and middle-class respectability, it also provides room for agency, cultural expression, and collective healing. The chapter challenges dominant narratives by centering Black women’s embodied knowledge, shared memory, and creative resistance within a historically marginalized dance tradition. Finally, the chapter reveals how urban line dance communities cultivate joy, care, and intergenerational connection, ensuring that Black women continue to move with purpose, power, and pride.