Solo Jazz workshop CANCELLED due to illness!
CANCELLED
Solo Jazz Workshop with Brock Mifsud
Wed 11th October 2023
Solo Jazz Workshop with Brock Mifsud
Wed 11th October 2023
Beginners workshop perfect for dancers new to Solo Jazz or those wanting to brush up and gain confidence. Brock is a wonderful dancer and teacher and we are excited to have her join us.
7.00 - 8.30pm
$25
All Souls Church Hall
126 Norton St (enter via Marion St)
Leichhardt
7.00 - 8.30pm
$25
All Souls Church Hall
126 Norton St (enter via Marion St)
Leichhardt
What is the shim sham?
Dancing a shim sham as a group has a long history in lindy hop, from the 1920s to the current day. It began as a tap dance routine choreographed by Black dancers Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant in the 1920s. It was performed on stage, and as a line dance. It’s still danced today by tap dancers all over the world.
Lindy hoppers today dance a soft shoe version of the routine (the tapping noises are taken out), which is usually called ‘Frankie’s shim sham’, for Frankie Manning, a lindy hopper from the 1930s who taught a lot of modern day dancers to dance.
Today lindy hoppers and tap dancers do the shim sham at parties, to celebrate a special occasion, or just to dance together at a party. You can dance a shim sham on your own, with a partner, or with hundreds of people.
Why do a line dance?
It’s a lot of fun. Line dances have a looong history in African American social dance, and are still danced all over the USA. It’s a lot like singing in a choir - a group routine feels really good to dance with a room full of people, sharing one choreography.
But they’re also a way for dancers to show off their individual styles and variations. There’s a Dean Collins shim sham, an Al and Leon shim sham… and so many more, named for the dancers who made their versions famous.
Why the shim sham?
It teaches you a few of the most important jazz steps in the lindy and jazz vocabulary. And it also teaches you where to put the emphasis in your rhythm - start on the 8!
You might never dance the shim sham at a party or in public, but learning it will make your lindy hop tight, and connect you to lindy hoppers all over the world today, and right back to the 1920s.
What makes a shim sham a shim sham?
Four phrases, and some jazz steps: a full break, a half break, stomp drags, cross-overs, and tackie-annies. Four phrases is one chorus of 32 bars (16 lots of 8 counts). That’s the length of a standard chorus in a jazz song. This makes the shim sham the perfect routine to pull out if you have to do a little performance with a band. And it’s lots of fun to see dancers get up on stage and do their version of the routine.
Link: Frankie and Chazz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhnNhr1spoM&t=1s
Link: Asa and Daniel and eWa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1dDPm_LzdA
Link: Dean Collins shim sham
Link: Gregory Hines tap shim sham https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv6arFLHehE
Link: global shim sham for frankie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_k_BIA_unI
Author: Sam Carrol
Copr: Swingtime Dance School