CONTRA International Dance

HISTORY of SHAG
For example:

The Shag was active, and 'named' long before the Lindy Hop.
The Shag came before the Jitterbug.
The Shag propagated the Big Apple (not the reverse). (See Shaggin' In the Carolinas)
The Shag grew and evolved at the coast in the 50s....the 40s....the 30s....but it started 'elsewhere.'
The Shag pre-dates Rhythm 'n Blues by 40 years.
The alleged 'Northern' Shag was not a northern Shag, it was invented in North Carolina. (See Shaggin' In the Carolinas)
The 'two different Shags' were different, but connected (actually, there were Three Shags). (See Shaggin' In the Carolinas)

The Shag WAS called the 'Shag' at the Beach in the 40s, 50s, 60s, etc. (as well as 'fas' dancin'', 'bop' and 'basic') (See Shaggin' In the Carolinas.

Although the Shag and Swing are cousins. (Shag is clearly a 'swing' dance) it preceded the Swing by decades. (Although, a case could be made that they both had clear lineages into the teens, even then they diverge in their origins).

Together with the Charleston and the Big Apple, Shag Historywhen it's fully laid out depicts Southern history in a way that has never been documented.

Bo Bryan's book, "Shag Legendary Dance of the South," scratched the surface by portraying the elite community of dancers we now characterize as the Shaggers Hall of Fame. Yet even that history is but the tip of the icebergthe butter on the grits.

Contra Dance History
 (continued)
 world, and eventually the French form of the name came to be associated with the American folk dances, especially in New England (this Frenchified name change may have followed a contemporary misbelief that the form was originally French).[1][2] Contra dancing remained popular in New England up until the early 20th century, when the big band era drew crowds away. Ralph Page almost single-handedly maintained the tradition until it was re-vitalized in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly by Ted Sannella and Dudley Laufman.