What is Shag?

Collegiate Shag is a swing dance developed by Black American social dancers of the 1920s. As with so many Black art forms, Shag was capitalised on by White teachers, who took the dance from ballroom to classroom. The dance spread across the USA, and by the mid 1930s it was the most popular dance in the country. The dance is now undergoing a major worldwide resurgence, with festivals and dancers in every corner of the globe.

Shag is characterised by its fast footwork, and as such it can be danced to extremely uptempo music. It is danced in a wide variety of styles, from expansive to compact, elegant to frantic. The gleeful feeling of Shag was often played up for comedic effect in Hollywood movies, and its strong shapes made it a perfect match for animation - check out some select clips below.

The word ‘Shag’ is synonymous with rhythmic movement, hence its smutty connotation in the UK. Today we use the prefix ‘Collegiate’ when talking about our type of Shag, but no such distinction existed in the past, meaning many different jazz dances were called Shag. This makes research into the dance very difficult for historians!

For now, here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject - together with a couple of our favourite clips to get you started…

The formidable Warsaw Collegiate Shag team!

‘Phony Boy’ - a recently unearthed gem of a clip, featuring some of Hollywood’s finest

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Mission

Shag Pile exists to promote and grow the Collegiate Shag community in London and beyond. We do this through:

  • Friendly, welcoming and affordable weekly classes

  • Social dances with live music from a changing lineup of bands

  • Public performances with our group the Shag Pilots

  • Workshops around the UK and in Europe

  • Performing for film, TV and events

  • Private classes

Our weekly drop-in classes are tailored to suit all comers. Each week starts from first principles, so students needn’t worry about missing a class. We move smoothly through the gears together, building up knowledge and sharing tips on how to dance fast with minimal energy. Then every other month we showcase the best live jazz London has to offer, with sizzling tunes for dancers at 'Cut a Rug'. These events where we take over the Gallery Cafe are perfect for anyone wanting to dip a toe in the scene, soak up the atmosphere and meet a welcoming crowd.

Curriculum

In recent years here at Shag Towers, we’ve been educating ourselves on the origins of swing dance - and particularly Collegiate Shag - as a Black art form.
In doing so, we’ve thought hard about how this relates to our teaching today, both in form and content. The result is a new curriculum which places more emphasis on these origins, looking in particular at Black performing artists of the Swing Era, their impact on dance culture, and the fabulous tunes that keep us dancing today. We look forward to deepening our knowledge with you.

Community

We seek to create and sustain a friendly, nurturing scene.
As part of this we have developed various working documents including:

Who are we?

Shag Pile is a collective of like-minded swing dancers, passionate about Collegiate Shag and St Louis Shag.

Our rotating roster of teaching talent includes Peter Ayres, Aila Floyd, Amélie Rousseau, Cristi Patrascu, Eleanore Obst, James Talbot, Janet Davenport, Jessica Dowdeswell, Mohammed Alradi, Victoria Gronwald and Patrick Kierkegaard.

Now check out some more of our favourite Collegiate Shag clips!

Swing dancers at the NYC World's Fair, 1939

Scene from the movie BLONDIE MEETS THE BOSS (1939) with dancers including Ray Hirsch & Patti Lacey

‘Dates and Nuts’ - a recently unearthed gem.

The most viewed Collegiate Shag video on the internet - for very good reason!

Contact us!

Got a question about our nights?
Need someone to teach at your event?
Looking for dancers for your film?
Want us to recommend a DJ?
Get in touch!

We perform at events with the Bees Knees.
We perform at festivals with the Mudflappers.

 

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