The shag, South Carolina’s official dance, originated decades ago, yet it’s withstood the test of time at Clemson. Shag at Clemson is a part of the students’ experience to meet people, learn something new and keep an old tradition alive.
Founded in 2019, the Clemson Shag Club has continued the legacy started decades prior by hosting lessons, events and socials for students. Every Tuesday night, members of the Shag Club take their place under the Library Bridge, learning the steps with friends, strangers and peers, giving the students a glimpse of the action.
Living in South Carolina, it’s almost impossible not to encounter shag in some capacity. For Sarah Lee, a senior mathematical sciences major, her first experience was at her cousin’s wedding. Little did she know that a few years later she would be serving as current president of the Clemson Shag Club.
Shag started on the beaches of South Carolina, especially North Myrtle Beach, in the late 1930s following the development of swing in the 1920s, according to an article by Discover South Carolina. Shag, often associated with beach music, originated within the African American community, but it soon became a widespread craze.
Almost 90 years later, the dance that started as a fun pastime has remained relevant enough that at Clemson in 2022, there are events, classes and a club, all for a shag. Clemson’s Undergraduate Student Government allocates $4,000 each year for the Tiger Rag Shag, an annual event for students to gather and have a night of fun with friends and peers.
Lee, the club president, has been an active member since her freshman year. When asked why the Shag Club, she responded, “The community. Shag is a social outlet. It connects all different people with all different majors.”
Clemson students also tend to mix and match as Lee said, thus constructing a dance of their own in a way. To the students, the accuracy of the steps is less of a concern than it being done together, that it’s part of a community.
Emma Grace Powers, a junior mathematical sciences major and vice president of the Shag Club, revealed why she became enamored by the shag. Like Lee, Powers joined the Shag Club as a freshman to meet people. She soon found a community with her fellow peers at Clemson but also witnessed the community and tradition shag extended beyond Clemson’s borders.
As Powers and her friends slowly learned shag, they ventured out to the Brass Monkey, a local restaurant and bar in Greenville, to have a night of dancing and lighthearted fun. It was here, Powers realized, that shag was not just a way of dancing with her friends but also an opportunity to remain connected with “the generation that is preserving the shag tradition.” “It’s cool to be a continuation of that tradition,” Powers said.
For people outside of the Shag Club, was shags’ appeal the same? Was it the community aspect, the tradition or something completely different?
Grace Groke, a junior parks, recreation and tourism management major currently enrolled in the shag class, joined shag as a result of her love for dance and desire to learn some new moves. She too met new friends through her class and said that “shag has taught me a new way to be social. It’s considered a social dance, and anyone can come up and ask you to dance.” It seems to be a universal theme that shag is much more than the state dance, but it is an opportunity to transform strangers into friends.
The effect of shag on the students of Clemson, within and beyond its borders, has helped shag to remain relevant after 90 long years and is the reason Clemson has embraced it with open arms into its community.
