Firefighters Crank It Up With Fun 'Cotton Eyed Joe' Performance

Apr 30, 2021

Firefighters Nate and Austin started a fire on the dance floor with their line-dancing rendition of “Cotton Eyed Joe” by Rednex. In a video originally posted back in 2010, the two firefighters can be seen doing their own version of a popular line dance. We have to mention that Nate and Austin are wearing all of their equipment while they perform the energetic dance, which makes it look exhausting and hilarious at the same time.

The firefighters are from Citizen’s Firehouse 36 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. They are trained to carry their incredibly heavy equipment upstairs and through many dangerous situations, so they make dancing with it on look easy. It is touching to see men who risk their lives for others stop and enjoy their own.

In the video, you can see the pair side-by-side as they begin their line-dancing rendition of the popular song. They repeat a simple series of steps while the song plays at its quick tempo in the background. At one point one of the men starts to dance in a circle around the other, showing off some impressive coordination. Whenever they begin to get slightly offbeat, they are always able to bring it right back. 

The video is posted to the firehouse’s YouTube channel, where they also post videos of fires to help spread awareness in the form of ads and public service announcements. They haven’t added any new videos since 2013, but their one dancing video has over 800,000 views. That is impressive for a small fire station that serves a rural community.

Line dancing is a type of choreographed dance that includes a repeated sequence of steps that are typically performed in a group. It began back in the 1970s during the disco era. This was a time when many new dances emerged, including “The Electric Slide” and the country-western line dance “Cowboy Boogie.” Line dancing is still popular in America, especially in small-town communities and rural areas. 

The song that the men are dancing to in the video is a remix of an old country-folk song called “Cotten Eyed Joe," which was written sometime before 1861. There have been numerous popular line dances created for the songs, especially after 1994 when Rednex, a Swedish band, released their extremely popular remix version.  

The video has 400 comments on YouTube, and the most frequent response was from people filled with surprise over how much gear Nate and Austin were wearing. One person said, “This is actually amazing to me especially since they still have all of their equipment on! Thank you for all that you do for us!” Another commented, “The fact they can do that in full turnout gear plus air tanks is a feat in and of itself.” It does look incredibly difficult to dance so energetically while wearing so much equipment.

Another comment came from someone who also works as a firefighter. She said, “I love this video! Been many a time I was tired from a tough fire or feeling down about something, but I'd soon cheer up a bit after watching this. From a Sister in MS, a hearty Thank you! Stay safe Brothers.”

It seems this was not the only fire station to have the idea to make a dancing video. One commenter said, “We did this at our station last week.” It turns out making dance videos is a great way for firefighters to relieve stress. 

"The Ellen Show" covered a video made by firefighters from Laredo, Texas. Ellen joked around and said, “If you know anything about me it’s that I love dancing and firefighters.” The video she covered showed three Laredo firefighters dancing to the song “Blinding Lights” by musical artist, The Weeknd. In the video, you see the three men lined up and as soon as the song began, they started a choreographed dance that was made popular on the social media platform Tik Tok. 

One of the Laredo firefighters, Justin DeLeon, told the KGNS news team, “I was the one in the introduction, and then I was in the middle. It was pretty fun.” Leo Garcia was the one who had the idea to create the video in the first place. He said the dance was a way for them to de-stress after work and bond together. The video has gained 1.9 million views on TikTok. Garcia said of the success of the video, "We've gotten a lot of support and messages saying 'hey, you came out on this, and you came out on Ellen!’” 

Fighting fires is a dangerous and stressful job. It is great that firefighters can find ways to have fun and let go of this stress. These dancing videos are sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Did the video of Nate and Austin dancing to “Cotton Eyed Joe” make you laugh or smile? What do you think of firefighters dancing? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to pass this along to your friends and family members.