Carolina Shag (It's a dance...)

Yes, it's a dance we did at Carolina.
A great, holding-hands-and-counting beats-while-you-learned dance. Nothing more. Wanted to clarify that right off the bat. Here's a link to everything you ever wanted to know about the shag. Maybe there's nothing you want to know. But the music was great, even if you never mastered the tricky steps.

Does dancing have much to do with writing? Maybe not. Though I may figure something out one of these days. Come to think of it, I always loved my friend Beth Jacks' essay on how she really learned to dance. And I'm in the middle of wrangling a kids' novel with a dance teacher in it. Does that count?

I learned to dance from a dreamboat of a boy named Robert. Of course, he preferred Sandra as a partner. Sandra starred in all the dance recitals and went on to teach dance classes. She could put all of us to shame. She and Beth and I danced side by side in so many recitals directed by our amazing former-Rockette dance teacher, Miss Ruth Hart.

I think they should make a movie about the Shag. A great dance movie. Maybe even set an HBO series in the Carolinas when the dance was most popular, a la Mad Men in NYC. Oh, wait. Looks like HBO already made the movie.