How To Do The Cotton Eyed Joe Dance 13 Steps With Pictures

Altogether, these first four moves make up the first 8 beats of the dance.

These previous two steps make up the second 8 beats of the dance. One entire round of this dance is 16 beats long.

You can also find videos of people doing the Cotton Eyed Joe on YouTube.

The chorus of the song is 16 beats, and is the same length as one round of the Cotton Eyed Joe dance. The final hook, “Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from, Cotton Eyed Joe?” lines up with your final 8 counts of the dance, where you will be moving from side to side.

If you get lost or forget the moves along the way, wait for the top of the chorus (“If it hadn’t been for the Cotton Eye Joe, I’d been married a long time ago. . . “) to start the dance over again. During the rest of the song, feel free to keep performing the Cotton Eyed Joe dance, or dance in any other way you please!