Shim Sham (dance)
From Free net encyclopedia
The shim sham or sham originally is a particular tap dance routine. It is credited to Leonard Reed, who originally called it Goofus, or to Willie Bryant. For swing dancers, today it is kind of line dance that recalls the roots of swing.
In the late 1920s and the 1930s, at the end of many performances, all of the musicians, singers, and dancers would get together on stage and do one last routine: the shim sham. Everyone would do it to their best. The tap dancers would do very fancy variations. The singers and musicians would shuffle along as they were able.
As a result of this conglomerate background, there is not technically one "shim sham" choreography - there are several variations. When you see a group of people doing the Shim Sham (especially a group of people from different cities), you'll notice a lot of similar steps combined with some alternatives and even some improvisation. One particular routine is quite common, and can be learned by intermediate dancers in a social setting. Three alternative routines (developed by Frankie Manning, Al Minns and Leon James (also called the "Savoy Shim Sham"), and another by Dean Collins) are more complicated and take some practicing.
The Shim Sham is a 10-frame dance (each frame lasting four bars), so it ordinarily takes up only the first part of the song. Everyone breaks into regular swing at the end of the choreographed part. The Shim Sham can be done to almost any mid-tempo song. An obvious choice is The Shim Sham Song (Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra), which has musical effects (e.g., breaks) in all the right places. But during this portion of the song, the band often calls out "Freeze!" (everyone stops) and "Dance!" (everyone resumes) a few times, just for variety.