Many years ago, when we were still in Austin, on the observation of the passing of Frankie Manning, we, as a community decide to learn the Shim-Sham and dance it in honor of him.

Frankie Manning doing his thing

I can’t say I got a hang of it then. I can’t say I got the hang of it in the years since, either. When done right, it looks like this:

Fortunately, our local dance studio, You Should Be Dancing, held a workshop this past weekend. The wonderful Stephanie Shapiro taught us the dance with great humor, kindness, patience and skill. She has a solid method for this dance and really helped us master chunks that we can stitch together. She was even patient as I scribbled notes in-between dance segments. I’ve written them down below as I move forward in truly learning this dance.