Shimmy

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1918 sheet music "Everybody Shimmies Now" with Mae West Sheet music cover - EV'RYBODY SHIMMIES NOW (1918).jpg
1918 sheet music "Everybody Shimmies Now" with Mae West
When the Alamo Theater in Atlanta used a cutout display of Viola Dana with separately mounted shoulders and a mechanism to do a shimmy for the film The Chorus Girl's Romance (1920), the chief of police ordered the mechanism turned off. The Chorus Girl's Romance (1920) - Alamo Theater, Atlanta, Georgia.jpg
When the Alamo Theater in Atlanta used a cutout display of Viola Dana with separately mounted shoulders and a mechanism to do a shimmy for the film The Chorus Girl's Romance (1920), the chief of police ordered the mechanism turned off.

A shimmy is a dance move in which the body is held still, except for the shoulders, which are quickly alternated back and forth. When the right shoulder goes back, the left one comes forward.

Contents

History

In 1917, a dance-song titled "Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble" by Spencer Williams was published, as "The Jazz Dance", which included the "Shimmy-She", among others. Shimmy also means 'scruffy dress code'.[ citation needed ]

Gilda Gray attributed to American Indians in a 1919 interview with Variety saying "You may not believe it but the original shimmy dance has never been properly introduced in New York. I know, for I have studied the dancing characteristics of the Indians for a long time, and they are really responsible for the shimmy which they labelled the 'Shima Shiwa'. There have been continual efforts on the part of this dancer and that one, with each declaring that his or her version is the 'original.' There is no doubt but that the shimmy dance as it was constructed by the American Indian would have a greater popularity if done right."

"I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate" was an up-tempo jazz dance song, written by Clarence Williams and Armand Piron, and published in 1919 which has been popular ever since and performed and recorded by many artists. [ according to whom? ] [2]

Flappers often performed the dance in the 1920s. The origin of the name is often falsely attributed to Gilda Gray, a Polish emigrant to America. An anecdote says that when she was asked about her dancing style, she answered, in heavy accent, "I'm shaking my chemise ". In an interview Gilda denied having said this, and earlier usages of the word are recorded. In the late 1910s, others were also attributed as being the "inventor" of the shimmy, including Hilda Ferguson, Bee Palmer and the jazz duo Frank Hale and Signe Paterson. [3] Mae West, in her autobiography Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, claimed to have re-titled the "Shimmy-Shawobble" as the Shimmy, after seeing the moves in some black nightclubs.[ citation needed ]

The dance was often considered to be obscene and was frequently banned from American dance halls during the 1920s. [4]

The move is also known in Gypsy dances. In Russian this move is called "Tsyganochka", or "gypsy girl", and is done by gypsy female dancers to produce a chime of costume decorations made of the sewn-on coins.[ citation needed ]

The dance move with this name is used in various modern dances.[ citation needed ]

In the early 1960s, several dance songs featuring the Shimmy became hits, including Bobby Freeman's "Shimmy, Shimmy", the Olympics' "Shimmy Like Kate", and Little Anthony & the Imperials' "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-ko Bop".

Belly dance

The shimmy is also a class of belly dance moves. Depending on the desired effect, style, teacher, and country of origin of the particular dance, a shimmy might be executed differently, but altogether, the shimmy will manifest as a fast shaking or shuddering movement that can be rhythmic or arrhythmic. The movement may be localised, such as in the hips, shoulder, chest, etc., or the move might be loose and general, reverberating through the entire body. Shimmies in belly dance can also have orientation, such as an up/down movement or a twisting movement of the hips. [5]

Related Research Articles

Jazz dance is a performance dance and style that arose in the United States in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance may allude to vernacular jazz, Broadway or dramatic jazz. The two types expand on African American vernacular styles of dance that arose with jazz music. Vernacular jazz dance incorporates ragtime moves, Charleston, Lindy hop and mambo. Popular vernacular jazz dance performers include The Whitman Sisters, Florence Mills, Ethel Waters, Al Minns and Leon James, Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Dawn Hampton, and Katherine Dunham. Dramatic jazz dance performed on the show stage was promoted by Jack Cole, Bob Fosse, Eugene Louis Faccuito, and Gus Giordano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Williams (musician)</span> American jazz pianist, composer, producer, and publisher

Clarence Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Egypt (dancer)</span> Stage name for popular belly dancers

Little Egypt was the stage name for at least three popular belly dancers from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. With countless imitators, the name became synonymous with belly dancers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blues dance</span> Family of historical dances that developed alongside and were danced to blues music

Blues dancing is a family of historical dances that developed alongside and were danced to blues music, or the contemporary dances that are danced in that aesthetic. It has its roots in African-American dance, which itself is rooted in sub-Saharan African music traditions and the historical dances brought to the United States by European immigrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilda Gray</span> Dancer, singer, actress

Gilda Gray was a Polish-American dancer and actress who popularized a dance called the "shimmy" which became fashionable in 1920s films and theater productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ned Wayburn</span> American choreographer

Ned Wayburn(néEdward Claudius Weyburn; 30 March 1874 – 2 September 1942) was an American choreographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African-American dance</span> Type of dance

African-American dance is a form of dance that was created by Africans in the Diaspora, specifically the United States. It has developed within various spaces throughout African-American communities in the United States, rather than studios, schools, or companies. These dances are usually centered on folk and social dance practice, though performance dance often supplies complementary aspects to this. Placing great value on improvisation, these dances are characterized by ongoing change and development. There are a number of notable African-American modern dance companies using African-American cultural dance as an inspiration, among these are the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Katherine Dunham Company. Hollywood and Broadway have also provided opportunities for African-American artists to share their work and for the public to support them.

A shimmy is a dance move, a kind of shaking of shoulders.

"I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate", often simply "Sister Kate", is an up-tempo jazz dance song, written by Armand J. Piron and published in 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribal Fusion</span>

Tribal Fusion Belly Dance is a modern Western form of belly dance that was created by fusing American Tribal Style belly dance and American Cabaret belly dance. Artists frequently incorporate elements from Popping, Hip Hop, 'Egyptian' or 'Cabaret' belly dance, as well as movement principles from traditional forms such as Flamenco, Kathak, Odissi, and other folkloric and classical dance styles.

"Nagasaki" is an American jazz song by Harry Warren and Mort Dixon from 1928 and became a popular Tin Pan Alley hit. The silly, bawdy lyrics have only the vaguest relation to the Japanese port city of Nagasaki; part of the humor is realising that the speaker obviously knows very little about the place, and is just making it up. It was one of a series of US novelty songs set in "exotic" locations popular in the era starting with Albert Von Tilzer's 1919 hit "Oh By Jingo!"; "Nagasaki" even makes reference to the genre's prototype in the lyrics. Even more directly the song "On the Isle of Wicki Wacki Woo" was written by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn in 1923.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bee Palmer</span> Bee Palmer, American dancer and singer (1903–1933)

Bee Palmer was an American singer, dancer, and showgirl who achieved fame during the Jazz Age as the "Shimmy Queen."

Shimmy Marcus is an Irish filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belly dance</span> Type of Middle Eastern dance

Belly dance is a Middle Eastern dance that originated in Egypt, which features movements of the hips and torso. An expressive dance, it is one of the oldest forms of dance. It has evolved to take many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style; with the Egyptian styles and costumes being the most recognized worldwide due to Egyptian cinema. Belly dancing in its various styles and forms is popular worldwide with many schools around the globe practicing it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twerking</span> Type of dance primarily involving the buttocks

Twerking is a type of dance that emerged from the bounce music scene of New Orleans in 1990, which has a broader origin among other types of dancing found among the African diaspora that derives from Bantu-speaking Africans of Central Africa. Individually performed chiefly but not exclusively by women, performers dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving throwing or thrusting their hips back or shaking their buttocks, often in a low squatting stance. Twerking is part of a larger set of characteristic moves unique to the New Orleans style of hip-hop known as "bounce". Moves include "mixing", "exercising", the "bend over", the "shoulder hustle", "clapping", "booty clapping", "booty poppin", "the sleeper" and "the wild wood"—all recognized as booty shaking or bounce. Twerking is one among other types of choreographic gestures within bounce.

Shimmy is a fitness television series broadcast in Canada on ONE: The Mind and Body Channel that emphasizes the health benefits of belly dance. The twenty-six episode series was designed by and created by Kim Pechet, a belly dance instructor and fitness professional. An original Canadian production, Shimmy premiered October 1, 2007 on ACCESS and CLT in Canada as well as in the United States on Discovery Health and OWN. Shimmy has been broadcast throughout Central and South America, Germany, and India as well as in Canada and the United States.

The following are the special concepts and terminology of belly dance. As this dance has many forms and can be found in North Africa and the Middle East, a significant proportion of the terminology is in Arabic. Turkish or Turkish-loan words may also be encountered among belly dance terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitman Sisters</span> Black Vaudeville quartet

The Whitman Sisters were four African-American sisters who were stars of Black Vaudeville. They ran their own performing touring company for over forty years from 1900 to 1943, becoming the longest-running and best-paid act on the T.O.B.A. circuit. They comprised Mabel (May) (b. Ohio; 1880–1942), Essie (Essie Barbara Whitman; b. Osceola, Arkansas, July 4, 1882 – May 7, 1963), Alberta "Bert" (b. Kansas; 1887–1964) and Alice (b. Georgia; 1900–December 29, 1968).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signe Paterson</span> Swedish-American vaudeville performer (1890–1963)

Signe Paterson, sometimes written as Signe Patterson, was a Swedish-born American vaudeville dancer, celebrated both for her solo performances and as one-half of the jazz duo Hale and Paterson alongside Frank Hale.

References

  1. "Shimmying Cutout Draws Atlanta Police Interference". Exhibitors Herald. New York City: Exhibitors Herald Company. 11 (24): 54. December 11, 1920.
  2. "Original Memphis Five - I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate". YouTube. 11 September 1922. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  3. Levitt, Paul M. (2011). My Life in Vaudeville: The Autobiography of Ed Lowry. Library of Congress: Southern Illinois University Press. p. 201. ISBN   978-0-8093-3016-4.
  4. "The Roaring Twenties - Dancing The Shimmy". YouTube. 1920s. Press reports on banning at 0:55 and 1:16
  5. Canada, CBC (2018). "How to Dance the Shimmy". YouTube CBC.

Sources