KC’s viral dancing cowboy who fell stringing holiday lights faces long recovery
Dan Foil, Stilwell’s social media-famous dancing cowboy, had decided to put up a ladder and string the Christmas lights on his home himself this holiday season. The price of a professional had gone up again, and Foil had some time.
How tough could it be?
“I stuck the landing,” he said with a chuckle weeks later, “a little too hard.”
After a tumble from the roof, it will be a few months before Foil dances again.
In the mood to handle the lights himself a couple of weeks ago, Foil put up a ladder and clambered atop the roof. There, his hand slipped, and he found himself tumbling through air, claimed by a “sudden burst of gravity.”
While falling around 14 feet to the ground below, Foil twisted and managed to avoid landing on his head or back and instead came down in a tucked position that sent his knees slamming into his shoulders. He went numb and, for a moment, wondered if he was paralyzed.
First responders took him by ambulance to Overland Park Regional Medical Center, where he learned he had broken both of his heels, his back and his foot in multiple places. He avoided a worst-case scenario but has surgeries and months of recovery ahead. After his final surgery, he expects it will be a minimum of 12-16 weeks before he can put weight on his feet again.
While at the hospital, Foil was told a handful of other people were there with fall injuries they suffered while putting up Christmas lights. One of the nurses told him he was in the best shape of the group, he said.
“It was kind of just a dumb thing,” he said Thursday, two weeks out from his fall. “I was sitting there, had some time on my hands and thought, ‘Well, I can do it just as good as anybody.’ I was wrong by a mile. It went from an $800 light-stringing to probably an $80,000 light-stringing in a hurry.”
Dancing cowboy
In recent years, Foil has gained a large social media following by posting videos of himself, wearing a cowboy hat and boots, shuffling and bobbing along to music in settings like airports or his Johnson County homestead. Sometimes he dances in front of a sunset or a rainbow, or with an audience of dogs, horses or staring airport travelers.
He now has around 247,000 followers on TikTok and around 133,000 followers on Instagram. He gives away money from social media to charity and delights in doing something different, keeping active, sharing his life and giving people something to enjoy.
Along the way, he’s gotten to meet celebrities like Lainey Wilson, Riley Green and Dennis Quaid. In July, Justin Bieber reposted a video Foil filmed at Kansas City International Airport. That video has been viewed nearly 8 million times. On Foil’s own page, several viral posts have topped one million views.
“I love dancing,” he said. “Since my kids were little-bitty, not even able to walk, we always had Saturday morning dance parties in the living room. We’d be there in our socks and sliding around and giggling and having fun.”
“I’m 58, there’s a certain amount of sedentary lifestyle that can set in that you don’t even realize,” he said. “I work out — or I did — but dancing is kind of a little bit of a workout without knowing you’re working out. I enjoy it.”
For now, he’ll have to set aside his dancing boots while he recovers.
“The pain is one thing, but losing your independence overnight and going from dancing and doing stuff around the ranch, doing stuff around our home, and then all of a sudden into a wheelchair, where I’m bumping into walls, it’s just been a very humbling experience,” he said. “It’s just a big challenge.”
Through the ordeal, Foil has been forced to slow down and has been reminded that he isn’t bulletproof. He hopes his story might be a cautionary tale and that he might be an example of positivity.
“If I can help anybody else not get on a ladder, that’s great, but just showing my son that even when things go bad, you can stay positive,” he said. “We can sit around and pout, or we can go, ‘Hey, let’s do this, let’s get over it.’”
