Beach music lovers honor the state dance with shag weekend

By Edwina Hoyle CONTRIBUTOR

Most of us remember the bond and camaraderie we enjoyed in our youth from friendships formed by shared experience. Participation in football, drama clubs, soccer, basketball, cheerleading, or other group activities was not only fun, but it also gave an opportunity to belong to a group that gave us joy.

That is exactly what members of the Hilton Head Island Shag Club experience through weekly Friday night social dances, five or six parties a year with music and dinner, and their annual Winter Classic in January.

The Winter Classic draws shag dancers from other clubs throughout the East Coast. More than 200 dancers from the Lowcountry, Myrtle Beach, and as far as Columbia, Spartanburg and even Jacksonville, Florida, attended the Winter Classic Jan. 20 at the Sonesta Resort on Hilton Head Island.

The ballroom was filled with smiling faces, dancing feet, great music and amity. The “spotlight” dance showcased Jackie McGee and Charlie Womble, a husband-and-wife dance team who have won the National Shag Dance competition 13 times.

Becky Elliott, one of the club’s dance instructors and past president, said, “In the shag club community, clubs throughout the region each throw one big event. A lot of folks fill up their monthly calendar going from dance to dance in the Southeast.”

For example, 85-year-old Marlene Frazier has traveled from Jacksonville to the Winter Classic every year since the 1990s. “I started dancing the shag when I was 57 and I go dancing three days a week. I think it’s great fun and important that our clubs support one another.”

Local member Dick Ryan said he was a lifeguard in Myrtle Beach back in the ’60s and loved the beach dances. He would ask a

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