Beginner / Advance Beginner Lessons

To learn to Shag Dance, you must begin with learning The Basic. This is the foundation of the dance. The first lesson of our 4 week Beginner class teaches you The Basic. To learn correctly and master the dance well, the student should spend a great deal of time stepping out the Basic with the correct "count". Practice this over and over so that it becomes "muscle memory". A couple should be able to dance the Basic step without having to think about it. Or, you should be able to talk with one another while doing The Basic! Then you are ready to move on and learn turns, and other steps in shag dancing.

The Basic Count Explanation:

The Carolina Shag has evolved over the years, and the Basic steps are labeled with a "count". Many of you may have learned to shag dance in college, stepping out on a 123, 123, rock back. The Carolina Shag Basic is a triple step, triple step, rock step for which the count is 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 6. You will actually step on each count, including the "&". Being more recent Shag enthusiasts, we are not sure of the origin of using the "&", but it's use is brilliant. While dancing the Shag Dance, the "&" can be moved around so that quicker steps remain on count much like when reading music you have half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes and so forth. As you advance, you may learn a stutter step which may be counted as "& 1 & 2" instead of as "1 & 2". Join us on our first lesson "Intro to Shag" and you'll see more about how this works.

Once the Basic step is mastered, you are ready to learn a lifetime of dance combinations that create your dance! Most of all, have fun!!