Texas Roadhouse line dance team takes market champion honors two years running

STEUBENVILLE -- They don't have a special name, but they've had special results.

For two consecutive years, the "Steubenville, Ohio, Texas Roadhouse Line Dance Team" has earned the market champions title in line dance competition involving teams from other Texas Roadhouse establishments.

"We had our line dance competition on June 29 at the Rusty Armadillo in Rootstown," explained employee Frank Aleksiejczyk, dance coordinator of the team from the Steubenville restaurant on Mall Drive.

"There were eight other teams, but only five others showed up -- Boardman, Niles, Elyria, Canton and Sandusky. Steubenville came in first, then Niles one point behind us, then followed by Sandusky one point behind Niles," he said.

The team includes, aside from Aleksiejczyk, Angelina DiGregorio, Kalynne Simpson and Anastasia Haysler, all of whom have been involved two years, and newer members Kylee Haught, Tiffany Hanlin, Sydney Banks and Sadie Marquis. Christ Thompson is the store manager.

Line dancing is a traditional part of the dining experience at Texas Roadhouse.

"We line dance to keep the culture of our restaurant alive," he said. "It's such a fun place to work for, and we keep dancing to keep our guests and ourselves entertained. It's a very different thing to do in a restaurant, so that's just one of the many things we do, to keep people coming back and something else others do not do," he added.

"The Steubenville store has been opened for three and one-half years, and ever since we opened, we have line danced," Aleksiejczyk said. "Every 45 minutes we line dance in the store to ensure everyone dining gets to see at least one dance while they're dining with us. The line dance team finds out about the Market Competition about two months in advance. We practiced three times a week for three hours each, so, we practiced about nine to 10 hours a week prepping for the Market Competition," he said.

Aleksiejczyk has been the dance coordinator from the get-go. "I became dance coordinator since before we opened," Aleksiejczyk said, noting the restaurant had a two-week training for everyone working for the store.

"One of the training exercises was line dancing. I have had experience dancing since I was at Indian Creek High School from band and also the musicals. I was the lead my sophomore year as Albert in 'Bye Bye Birdie,' and my senior year as Danny Zuko in 'Grease.' Also, being in band for five years, I made up the dance breaks for our half-time performances. So, having all of this experience, when they taught us line dancing, I caught on very quickly. They asked me from that day on to be dance coordinator, and I accepted. To create our line dance team, I held open auditions and created it that way," he explained.

Everyone on the team is an employee, and Aleksiejczyk said it "just happened to work out as being dance coordinator, because every team had to have at least one male dancer as well," he said.

The line dance team doesn’t have a special name. "We are  just the Steubenville, Ohio, Texas Roadhouse Line Dance Team," he said.

In the restaurant, the dancers dance to country music, but when it comes to competition, "they give you two country songs to dance to, and then a free song of any choosing we would like. Our free choice song was a Mashup of  'Formation,' by Beyonce; 'Naughty' by Gwen Stefani; and 'Me Too' by Meghan Trainor," he said.

"This is our second year in a row to win," Aleksiejczyk said. "We also won last year as well. We are our Market Champions two years running."