Who invented the Shim Sham Shimmy?
Leonard Reed
Leonard Reed, a tap dance pioneer who was co-creator of the famous Shim Sham Shimmy dance routine, died here on Monday.
When was Shim Sham invented?
1927
In 1927, two song and dance men, Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant, took four popular steps of the 1920’s, strung them together with a break and created the now legendary “Shim Sham Shimmy.” At the time, Reed & Bryant were touring in the South with The Whitman Sisters show, and the dance was originally called “Gofus.” The …
What did the Shim Sham originate as?
Originating from a style of dance termed the ‘Goodus’ in the late 1920s, the Shim Sham Shimmy was first performed on stage in Harlem in the early 1930s as a closing routine that would get all of the singers, dancers and performers on stage together with the audience joining in.
Where was the Shim Sham Shimmy created?
Harlem
The Three Little Words started to doing the dance at Connie’s Inn in Harlem and they called it Shim Sham (if we trust on Stearns’ Jazz Dance) or they went to the club called Shim Sham where they started to call the dance by name Shim Sham Shimmy (if we trust on Leonard Reed’s own story).
What does shimmy sham mean?
shimmy-shammynoun. Secretive, illicit activity or favor trading.
Do people still do the Shim Sham?
In fact, the Shim Sham is so important that the tap community has dubbed it the “international hoofers anthem.” Though it’s decades old, the Shim Sham is still done at all types of tap events, from festivals to memorial services.
What is a shim sham tap?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Shim Sham Shimmy, Shim Sham or just Sham originally is a particular tap dance routine and is regarded as tap dance’s national anthem. For today’s swing dancers, it is a line dance.
What is a tap time step?
Time Step may refer to: Time step, a rhythmic tap combination in tap dancing.
Who was the creator of the shim sham shimmy?
The Shim Sham-Shimmy is said to be the creation of Willie Bryant and Leonard Reed and was changed to accommodate a larger group in the theatres they were working at the time, some say around 1927.
Where did the shim sham routine take place?
The routine consisted of standard steps: eight bars each of the Double Shuffle, the Cross Over, Tack Annie (an up-and-back shuffle), and Falling Off a Log. In early 1930s, the Shim Sham was performed on stage in Harlem at places like Connie’s Inn, Dickie Wells’s Shim Sham Club, the 101 Ranch, the LaFayette Theatre, and the Harlem Opera House.
How did the shim sham get the Tack Annie?
They called this tap routine as ‘Goofus’ and it contained four steps: the double shuffle, the tack annie, the cross over and the half break as done by one chorus routine to a 32 bar tune. The tune that they used was ‘Turkey in the Straw’. They got the tack annie from a Tap dancer called Jack Wiggins who did a thing called ‘Pull it’.
When did the Three Little Words perform Shim Sham?
An intresting fact is that when The Three Little Words performed Shim Sham in the club in 1931, they also invited everybody to get aboard and that happened. The tradition perform Shim Sham as a group started then very early. Somehow that dance spread also into the Savoy Ballroom.
