Shaggin' in Carolina

Shagging is the official popular
dance in North Carolina.

Does shag music evoke beach scenes and coastal memories for you? Although sandy beaches may be several miles away and some old dance pavilions no longer exist, the music is known to transport many fans to a different place and time.

The Baby Boomers of today are the teenagers of yesterday who escaped to beach towns for a weekend, a full week, or the entire summer (if they could get permission). After Baby Boomers matured sufficiently to win political office, they nurtured a bill through the N.C. General Assembly to recognize the importance of shag music in our culture. In 2005 the legislators established shagging as the official popular dance of the state. The rationale for this recognition: shag brings entertainment value to “participants and spectators in the State.”

Not only is shag the official popular dance, but shaggers now enjoy their own personalized license tag that was recently approved when the minimum 300 applications were submitted. The “shag tag” conveys the logo of “I’d Rather Be Shaggin’.” Part of the license fee supports the Hall of Fame Foundation, begun in 1991 by shaggers to help friends in need.

Modern shag dancing gained in popularity along the Carolina coast in the 1940s and early 1950s. According to the General Assembly, shagging “evolved from the jitterbug and jump blues of the big band era.” A better source on its roots, however, is the Fayetteville Area Shag Association, which dates the shag to the 1930s and proclaims that the standard tempo is 110-135 beats per minute. This club describes the shag as smooth and graceful and emphasizes footwork rather than turns.

Harry Driver in the early
1950s at Myrtle Beach, SC

One of the charismatic and best-known dancers in the late 1940s was Harry Driver from Dunn, just minutes from Raleigh and about two hours via U.S. 421 from Carolina Beach, where the term “Carolina shag” was coined. Considered the Father of Shag, Driver was renowned for his moves. In a 1982 interview, he said, “If you were going to the beach in the summer, you had better know how to dance.”

The shag dancers of today recognize the contributions of Driver and his generation in creating a culture they enjoy. Driver, who served as a shag contest judge in the 1980s, said that part of the reason for the dance is that guys wanted a way to impress girls. The classic tune “Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing” explains:
          Even guys with two left feet 
          Come out alright if the chick is sweet. 

The website of the Society of Stranders, a group that perpetuates “the dance, music, and culture that make up the shag,” opens with the Fantastic Shakers singing the song to also let us know:
           The best things happen while you’re dancing. 
           Things that you would not do at home 
           Come nat’rally on the floor. 

According to Driver, the dance wasn’t called the shag until the ‘60s. After the music survived through the ‘60s and ‘70s, it enjoyed a renaissance in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Then groups, such as the Society of Stranders formed in 1984, were created as Baby Boomers reached middle age to preserve and expand the music that shaggers love. Also established in 1984 were the Association of Beach and Shag Club DeeJays, formed Chapel Hill, and the Association of Carolina Shag Clubs, formed in Columbia, SC.

As shaggers were brought together by these associations, Baby Boomers organized local clubs as they settled in the Triangle, Sandhills, and other areas distant from the coast, proving that proximity to the beach is not a factor for organizing a club – only an interest in preserving shag music. In fact, North Carolina has more shag clubs that any other state.

In 1984, the same year that regional shag associations were formed, the Fayetteville Area Shag Association was founded as a local club. In central North Carolina, soon other clubs were encouraged to capitalize on the growing interest in shag music and dancing. The Burlington club has been active since 1985. Raleigh shaggers waited until 1993 to form their club. Clubs now cover the state from Boone to Wilmington, with a club in Fuquay-Varina established as late as 2006.

As shag historian Bo Bryan writes in his poem on shag dancing, “If you are a Baby Boomer, / you won’t be alone / in The Land of Shag.” Nurtured by the Association of Carolina Shag Clubs, local clubs bring people together to preserve the shag dance and its music while they enjoy fellowship and develop friendships. The club in Pittsboro says, “It’s not just a dance; it’s a lifestyle.”

A new Guinness Book record
was set with 744 dancers.

With such dedicated organizations promoting shag culture, shaggers are listed in The Guinness Book of World Records, of course. However, it didn’t happen until last year. By dancing in synchronized steps for five minutes, 744 dancers – three times the number needed – established the record for “Largest Carolina Shag Dance.”

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Note: This post appeared originally as a longer article in the June 2015 issue of OutreachNC, a monthly magazine distributed in 10 counties of central North Carolina. Click here to see the article as it appeared in print.

Polar Plunge: A New Fascination with the Ocean Coast

Southerners have always by fascinated by the ocean coast — the rolling waves, foamy surf, abundant wildlife, sandy beaches, warm water (usually), and occasional hurricanes.

For many Native Americans such as the Algonquians, the coastal areas offered everything needed to sustain and enjoy life. Explorer John White, famous for his expeditions before the 1600s to the American South for Queen Elizabeth but failed colony on Roanoke Island, recorded much about coastal life in his watercolors preserved today in the British Museum of London (and displayed a few years ago at the N.C. Museum of History).

Imagine the reaction of the Algonquians if they could learn that Southerners have a new activity today to enhance their appreciation of the ocean coast — the polar plunge. Although the plunge is not an event for everyone, those who do participate — and raise money for their noteworthy charity — have gained more attention recently. A good example is the polar plunge conducted annually in New Hanover County of North Carolina for the Special Olympics, the largest program of sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

Held in February, when the water temperature is often below 50 degrees F., at the Boardwalk in Carolina Beach (south of Wilmington), this plunge attracts hundreds of participants willing to throw their bodies into the cold winter ocean to benefit a charity, prove their stamina (even if for only a few seconds), and earn publicity in the process. In addition to news reports, the moments of fame are preserved on YouTube and social media sites (the plunge itself even has a Facebook page). In addition, the festivity of the plunge is enhanced by other events: face painting, classic car show, ice carving, and costume contests.

To “plunge,” a participant has to raise at least $50 ($30 for students). Companies, churches, and schools form “polar bear clubs” to raise money for the honor of plunging together as a group or dragging someone into the frigid waters. (Teams must have at least five plungers.) In addition, corporate sponsors are indispensable in promoting the plunge and achieving its success. (The plunge in Florida even boasts SeaWorld as a sponsor.)

For the Special Olympics team of New Hanover County, this event is its only fundraiser. (The plunge in February 2011 raised more than $40,000.) The proceeds support more than 600 Special Olympians who train throughout the year in eleven different sports (such as soccer, bowling, tennis, swimming, and softball) and compete in local, regional, and state events.

Although some polar plunges are not held on the coast (such as the one in mountainous Watauga County of North Carolina where the plunge is into Duck Pond and Florida’s plunge into the wave pool of SeaWorld’s Aquatica in Orlando that is “iced down”), what could be better (and more authentic) than plunging into the frosty rolling surf of the Atlantic Ocean? If only an extra reward was offered for a plunger who also captured something to eat from the ocean like the Algonquians.

Explorers in the 1600s after White also seemed fascinated by the ocean that borders the American South. For example, John Smith, who established the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, recorded that his party “escaped the vnmercifull raging of that Ocean-like water” [spelling is original British]. Perhaps they should have been as less intimidated as the plungers.

If the Algonquians of the 1580s, noted by White for their water-oriented lifestyle, could observe today’s Southerners, what would they say? Perhaps they would admire the region’s creativity for using the ocean coast to sustain and enjoy life.