The "Shag" Arthur Murray taught was actually a newer version of the "Collegiate Shag" that was done in the 1920's by the College kids but was slightly different than the "Collegiate" or "8 count Swing Baboa" as done

today.

   The Shag was originally called the "Flea-Hop" in New Jersey and in North Carolina as the "Sugar Foot " and only in the deep south as the Shag in 1931 (Look Mag-1938 this IS mis-referencing, more towards the Carolina Shag I'm presuming). It uses a six count basic rather than four or eight.

   It is basically a Slow-Slow-Quick-Quick, or six count rhythm, similar to the "belly roll" of the Carolina Shag but a lot faster. The lead holds the follower very closely with very fast feet (hopping/stomping) movements, and a few body moves and many variations. The Murray Shag eventually gave way to a much more modified version called "Balboa" in popularity.

   A good film clip of this is "Arthur Murray and his Shag Dancers" (see clip) - this short film is not available commercially, but many swing dancers have copies of this tapeing. It is basically a quick instructional video on how to do the shag with demo's and a few performances by his students at the end ... They aso do a team type routine for the audience at the end.

    The Arthur Murray Shag dance is its own dance like the Charleston, Black Bottom, Balboa etc. It is however a part of the swing dance family of dances, however it is not a swing dance, but rather a companion dance to swing like the Charleston, Fox-Trot, Suzy-Q, Balboa, Big Apple, Little Apple, Truckin, Black Bottom etc. The 1937 and 1938 Harvest moon ball featured a Collegiate Shag division.

Note: A interesting thing in Arthur Murray's 1937 Let's Dance book, he breaks it down as a Hop-Hop-123 (kicking on 3) but breaks it down differently in his video. The Movie Swing, Swing, Swing has a good musical short of this dance.

Birth Place

Creation Date

Creator

Dance Type

Posters, Lobby Cards etc.

Sheet Music Covers

Various Shag Music Titles

Night Clubs

Theaters

Locations

related Films / Movies

Television

Ballets / Stage

Publications

Other Related Dances of the time...

Dancers, Choreographers etc.

Political

Books, Magazine Articles on the dance...

Musicians

Singers

Poets / Writers

Misc. Research Words that may be related ... to help your searches

Basic Step ...