VIENNA, W.Va. - The Mid-Ohio Valley Shaggers Dance Club will hold its eighth annual "Shaggin' By the River" dance from 3 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Dil's Riverside Park on Ninth Street off Grand Central Avenue in Vienna, right on the bank of the Ohio River.
The cost is $35 a person, which includes a dance workshop and dinner.
For information or to register, contact Randy Kinsolving at 304-615-0023 or e-mail at randykin@millercomm.com or Tim Miller at 304-863-3323. Information is also available at the club's website at www.movshaggers.com.
A dance workshop will be presented at 4 p.m. by Kevin and Dee Twohig, a pair of shag dance instructors from Charleston.
The DJs for the evening are Kinsolving and Miller. Dinner will be catered at 6 p.m. by Der Dog Haus. A 50/50 drawing will be held. The park has a large covered picnic shelter and a tent in the event of rain and the club will be setting up its wood parquet floor to create two dancing surfaces.
The Carolina Shag, also called the Shag, is the official state dance of South Carolina and over the years it has spread to other states, including West Virginia, which has several active shag dancing clubs.
Shag dancing is derived from other dances like the swing, the jitterbug and the Lindy hop, although it is slower and more toned down than those more energetic dances. The dance also has its own style of music associated with it, usually called beach music, shag music and other styles that are popular in the Carolinas. Many popular songs also make good shag-dancing music, as long as they have a certain type of beat.
The MOVS holds Carolina Shag dancing from 7 to 9:30 p.m. each Thursday in the back room of American Legion Post 15, located on Ohio Avenue in the traffic circle in Parkersburg. Membership in the club is $15 per year.
For more information, contact Miller at 304-863-3323 or e-mail timm@millercomm.com.
