Adia Nuño always dreamed of being a professional dancer.
But after turns as a high school and college cheerleader and then leading three cheer programs in Orange County, she figured her dance card was full.
Until she found country music and line dancing.
Seven years later, Nuño is calling the shots at the Tito’s Barn along with a team of dancers at the three-day BeachLife Ranch music festival this weekend.
You can’t help notice the “barn” which is actually a big tent set up about 300 or so yards from the BeachLife Ranch entrance in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor.
Nuño is there on Friday afternoon, microphone in hand, cowboy hat on head, boots scooting across the cement dance floor. She’s teaching about 25 BeachLife Ranch attendees a dance called Two Step to the song by the same name.
“Side together, one, two, three!,” Nuno yells. “Lookin’ good y’all!”
The students laugh, some successful, some stumbling.
Nuño is in her element. She’s found joy again, she said, in an interview earlier in the week, because of country music and line dancing.
The petite brunette from Corona said she fell into a deep depression sometime around 2017. She was 34 years old at the time. She happened upon a line dancing class at a saloon.
That’s when she fell in love with country music.
For her, the lyrics are imbued with a thoughtfulness and attentiveness not found in other music genres.
“It seems when (country) artists and the writers are sharing their stories, they do it from a respectful position,” Nuño said.
When lyrics mention women and love, she added, there’s a “gentleman-ness and respect behind it.” Having been disrespected in her youth, she said, country music made her feel wanted.
So Nuño went looking for dancing to go with the music. She found Mavericks Saloon in Norco. The people were welcoming, she said and she just kept going back.
“It was ultimately a big feeling space for me,” Nuño said. “For the first time in my…
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