Solo Jazz Routines

About:

Originally this routine was called the Goofus and it was a tap routine choreographed by Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant. They choreographed this routine in the 1920s to be performed in the Whitman Sisters troupe’s Vaudeville show on the T.O.B.A circuit. By the 1930s, this routine made its way to Harlem where it was common in a number of clubs, and performed so frequently that the regulars in the club would get up and do the routine with the performers. This is where it was started to be known as the Shim Sham and many dancers choreographed their own variations of this routine.

Later, during the swing revival, Frankie Manning started teaching the shim sham around the world and it is so common now that almost every swing dance scene will flock to the floor to do the shim sham when T'aint What you Do starts playing.

Choreography:

The choreography fits any song with AABA standard phrasing. The first four phrases are done with a full break but when these get repeated the full break gets swapped out with a freeze. Then after the boogie and Shortie George phrases everyone randomly finds a partner and social dances to the end of the song.

• Stomp drags

• Pushes/cross overs

• Tackie Annie

• Half break
  
  Repeat
  

• Boogies

• Shortie George
  

Part 1

Stomp drags
Stomp drags
Stomp drags
Full Break

Pushes
Pushes
Pushes
Cross overs

Tackie Annie
Tackie Annie
Tackie Annie
Full Break

Half break X2
Full break
Half break X2
Full break

Part 2

Stomp drags
Stomp drags
Stomp drags
Freeze

Pushes
Pushes
Pushes
Cross overs

Tackie Annie
Tackie Annie
Tackie Annie
Freeze

Half break X2
Freeze
Half break X2
Freeze

Part 3

Boogie back
Boogie forwards
Boogie back
Boogie forwards

Boogie back
Shortie George
Boogie back
Shortie George

Social dance

Lessons:

If you wanted to do a full lesson on the shim sham, here's Charlotte's classes that were live streamed to YouTube.

About

There is a fantastic blog by at Swung Over about the origins of this routine so if you want to know more click here.

The version of this routine that we dance most was performed by Al Minns, Leon James, and Pepsi Bethel in this clip that was part of the Spirit Moves documentary. However This is likely not to be the original. Frankie is reported to have choreographed the Tranky Doo, naming it after a chorus girl nick named, Tranky Doo who did the fall-off-the-log step into shuffles and boogie. Fankie’s Tranky and Spirit Tranky start with the same chorus however that’s where it starts changing. It is possible that Pepsi Bethel adapted or re choreographed the next chorus, and then used a couple of repeated steps to finish off a performance. The final product is a mash up from different people choreographing to potentially different songs so it feels bit all over the place. It fits blues phrasing in some places, and standard phrasing in others and the ending feels like the moves were just added last minute because there was no time to think of anything else.

Choreography

I have written up the first move in each phrase so you can get an idea of the order of the routine. Most groups of moves are in lots of 4 X 8 beats (standard phrasing) however some phrases like the knee slap phrase and eagle slide phrase are grouped into 6 X 8 beats (blues phrasing). For more details, look at the break down of the routine below.

Phrases

• Falling off the log

• Shoe Shine

• Apple Jacks

• Boogie/Shortie George

• Knee slaps

• Eagle slide

• Truckin'

• Box Step

• Hip Sways

• Knee Slaps

• Falling off the log

• Shoe Shine

• Apple Jacks

• Boogie/Shortie George

Fall off the log
Low down
fall off the log
Low down

Shoe shine
Boogie forward
Shoe shine
Boogie forward

Applejacks
Applejacks
Helleluja rocks
Boogie forwards

Boogie back
Shortie George
Boogie back
Break

Knee slaps
Cross over
Suzi Q
Break
Mess around

Fall off the log
Eagle slide
Boogie drops
Mumbo steps
Mumbo steps
Paddles
Fall off the log

Truckin'
Truckin'
Float back

Kick steps
Kick steps
Kick steps

Box steps
Box steps
Box steps
Box steps
Box steps
Box steps

Hip sways
Hip sways
Hip sways
Hip sways

Knee slaps
Knee slaps
Knee slaps
Knee slaps

*Repeat 1st chorus

About:

Big Apple dances were extremely common. Dancers would be in a circle, one person would call out moves for everyone to join in. It was usually a social dance and was probably inspired by ring shouts which were done in churches. The story goes that while this craze was taking over Harlem, Frankie Manning heard about it while he was on tour. He had never seen a Big Apple danced but from what he heard, he choreographed The Big Apple Contest routine for the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers troupe and this is the routine that we still do today.

Choreography:

This routine has a lot going on so it can be overwhelming when we learn it for the first time! Here I have put listed out the first move of every phrase to give you an idea of the order of this routine.

Phrases:

• Shouts

• Stomp drags

• Boogie backs

• Suzie Q

• Spank the baby

• Jump Charleston

• Fishtails

• Knee slaps

• Run

• London bridge

• Shish-ka-boom-ba

• Skates

• Boogies (then Shortie George)

• Charleston

• Suzie Q

• Jump Charleston

• Shouts

• Break-a-leg

Breakdown
Shouts
Shouts
Shouts
Break

Stomp Drag
Grape vine
Hellajua Rocks
Boogie Forwards

Boogie Backs
Applejacks
Applejacks
Gaze-a-far

Suzi Q
Suzi Q
Rusty Dusty
Rusy Dusty

Spank the Baby
Spank the Baby
Spank the Baby
Spank the Baby

Jump Charleston
Jump Charleston
Jump Charleston
Breaks

Fishtails
Boogie forwards
Fishtails
Boogies

Knee slap
Fall off the log
Kick steps
Kick steps

Run
Run
Run
Run

London Bridge
London Bridge
London Bridge

Break

Shish-ka-boom-ba
Rock step cross turn
Kick steps
kick ball change, cross turn

Skates
Fall off the log
Grape vine
Halleujah rocks

Boogies
Shortie George
Shortie George
Shortie George

Charleston
Around the world
Knee slaps
Knee slaps

Cross, class
Suzi Q
Jump Charleston
Suzi Q

Jump Charleston
Pecks
Fall off the log
Boogies

Shouts
Shouts
Shouts
Break

Break-a-leg
Break-a-leg
Break-a-leg
Break-a-leg

About:

This routine was performed by the Five Blazers, Andrew Jackson, John Thomas, Unknown, Henry ‘Phace’ Roberts and Unknown, in the film Black and Tan Fantasy (1929) featuring Duke Ellington. They also performed this act at the Cotton Club for about eight years.

Choreography:

This is a short piece of choreography. It’s only 8 phrases long and it has a rhythm break that gets repeated through out the entire routine. Break downs of all these sections are below.

Phrases:

1. Brush steps

2. Leg Swings

3. Shuffle off to Buffalo

4. Gallop

5. Knee bend/Leg lifts

6. Fl-aps

7. Shoe Shine

8. Forwards, back, back

Brush steps
Brush steps
Brush steps
Shuffle ball change
Rhythm break

Leg Swing right
Rhythm break
Leg swing left
Rhythm break

Shuffle off to Buffalo left
Break
Shuffle off to Buffalo right
Break

Gallop
Gallop
Gallop
break

Knee bend
Break
Leg lift
Break

Shuffle ball change
Heel dig, heel drop, step
Heel dig, heel drop, step
Fl-ap, fl-ap, fl-ap, fl-ap
Shuffle ball change step
Tackie Annie
Break

Gallop/shoe shine
Gallop/shoe shine
Gallop’/shoe shine
Break

Gallop forwards, backwards
Break
Hop backwards
Break

Exit

Lessons:

If you would like to do the entire class, all four lessons were live streamed to YouTube and are available in this playlist. So feel free to go back anytime to do these classes. As well as the routine, I also teach a few of my favorite tap steps and teach a little bit of too technique too.

*I do apologise for the final class. The microphone didn’t end up sending the audio to YouTube for some reason so there is no sound in the 4th class.

History:

This is a relatively recent routine. Marcus Koch and Bärbl Kaufer released an instructional video series in 1998. On “Footwork Fast and Fancy” Marcus does a dance to the song Killer Boogie (which is added at the end of this YouTube clip). This section was extremely popular and Marcus ended up choreographing the rest of the routine and changing a few things from the original (which he shows us at the start of this video).

Marcus and Bärbl now run the Rock That Swing Festival which the Killer Boogie has now been a big part of. In 2013, Nicolas Deniau, Thorbjorn Solvoll Urskog and Pontus Persson danced the original Killer Boogie sequence as a tribute to Marcus. After much encouragement from the crowed Marcus also got up and dragged Remy Kouakou-Kouame up too, to also dance to the Killer Boogie Song.

In 2015, a group of 13 instructors got up to perform the Killer Boogie with Marcus and Rasmus. Every year since, it has been preformed with more and more people joining in every time!

Part 1

• Six Count basic

• Six Count basic

• Six Count basic

• Six Count basic

• Six Count basic

• Six Count basic

• Six Count basic

• Six Count basic

• Out and ins

• Run runs

• Gallops

• Eight Count Basic

• Double kick

• Double Kick

• Triple Steps (x4)

• Triple steps (x2) Jump

• Triple Steps (x4)

• Triple steps (x2) Jump

• Six count basic

• Six count basic

• Triple step, step step

Part 2

Chorus

• Taps, kicks

• Break

• Applejacks

• Applejacks

• Eight count basic

• Out and in

• Gallops

• Gallops

• Six count basic

• Six count basic

• Break (knees, out/in)

• Six count basic

• Six count basic

• Break (scarecrow)

• Six count basic

• Six count basic

• Triple steps (x2)

• Scissor kicks

• Scissor kicks with break

• Scissor kicks

• Scissor kicks with break

• Crazy legs walk in

• Crazy legs walk out

Chorus

• Taps, kicks

• Break

• Applejacks

• Applejacks

• Eight count basic

• Out and in

• Eight count basic

• Gallops

Part 3

• Kick ball change, turn

• Kick ball change, turn

• Kick ball change, turn

• Kick ball change, turn

• Six count basic

• Six count basic

• Triple steps (x2)

• Switches

• Twists

• Switches

• Twists

• Switches

• Twists, turn

• Charleston variation 1

• Charleston variation 2

• Charleston variation 1

• Charleston variation 2 (while turning)

• Double kicks

• Rock step, cross, turn

• Jump

Slowed down 62% (141 BPM)

Full speed (229 BPM)