Shag Lessons

What do you do when beach music begins to play at your local stake dance? Do you hightail it to the far corners of the room? Do you grab a partner and begin swing dancing? Do you wonder what on earth that garbage radiating from those speakers is? No, no, no...you should Shag.

I've long been a fan of beach music. It's very similar to swing music, with a kind of R&B twist. (That's the best I can think to describe it.) I grew up listening to songs like "Carolina Girls," "Myrtle Beach Days," and "More Than a Number in my Little Red Book." My mom would play them nonstop, and we slowly memorized the lyrics to dozens of songs. Years ago, I was surprised to learn from my mom that there was a special kind of dancing that accompanied this genre of music: the Shag. She and my dad attempted Shag lessons for a couple of weeks. I don't think they ever got all that good at it, because my mom and dad never would show us anything they learned other than the basic step.

About a week ago, a friend from church mentioned having gift certificates for free Shag lessons that she was giving away since she would be leaving town and they were going to expire. I was the lucky recipient of these tickets and today was my first lesson.

It was fun. It probably would have been more fun if I'd managed to convince someone to go with me, particularly a man. Unfortunately, I had no such luck. However, by the middle of the lesson, I was slightly glad that I did not bring a boy as I'm rather slow to pick up dance steps and I am very easily embarrassed. Luckily there were several old men there early for the intermediate class which followed my lesson. They were kind enough to partner with the extra females in our group and this evened things up.

I was told by one gentleman that I should practice for 3 hours a day with my doorknob. According to him, you must be very close to your "partner" and this method worked for him when he was beginning. I'm currently looking at my doorknob and it doesn't look all that appealing. I'm not sure that any such practice session will ever occur no matter how much I'd like to learn the dance.

Anyways, I'm excited to learn how to Shag. Evidentially, we're going to move on past the basic step next week and learn to turn a bit. Now I just have to get to know someone else who has actually heard of and knows how to Shag so I can put my new skillz to work!