Thursday, December 22nd The Dean Collins' Shim Sham: The Shim Sham originated as a tap dance choreographed by Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant in 1928. The non-tap version was made popular when Frankie Manning and others began teaching it at many swing dance camps and workshops all over the World. The Dean Collins' version dates back to the late 1930's and is based on the original non-tap version of the Shim Sham with Collins really spicing up the footwork and incorporating fun and exciting additional steps. Collins only taught his Shim Sham to a very select few male dancers, including Bart Bartola & Bobby Hefner. The only woman he appeared to teach parts of it to was his dance partner of 11 years, Jewel McGowan, so that they could perform parts of it in the short film "Glen Gray & Casa Loma Orchestra Short". The pictures on the right are of Dean & Jewel dancing together. You can see Dean & Jewel dancing some of his Shim Sham from the Glen Gray & Casa Loma Orchestra Short here. (*it plays on divx, get a free download at divx.com.) File may take time to load as it's large. If you want to improve your dancing we highly recommend learning and incorporating the Dean Collins' Shim Sham into your dancing. Anyone can learn the Shim Sham and then jump in when you see other doing it. Steve & Heidi often are the lone Dean Collins' Shim Shamers at places like the Doghouse when the Shim Sham comes on. Now you can join in! LMDC is located at: 200 Grand Ave at Harrison in Oakland Free parking, right off the 580 & close to the 19th Street BART Station. No partner or experience necessary. Workshop is $24 per person and includes free admission to the DJ dance from 9-11 pm.