The USA Grand Nationals Dance Championships is a “fun, friendly, and organized” competitive dance competition that sees different dance communities come together to inspire one another and share their passion for the art form.
It’s a popular annual event, and many performances end up going viral after being filmed and shared on YouTube.
Sam West and Autumn Jones were one of the seven dancing couples in the 2017 Grand Nationals Championships, in the Carolina Classic sector.
The couple was first to take to the stage with the aim of blowing the audience away – and they did exactly that.
While Autumn looks like a typical glamorous dancer, Sam looks like your average middle-aged man.
You’d expect him to pull out some classic dad dancing moves, but when you see him perform, you’ll realize how wrong it is to judge a person on looks alone!
Despite being a little older than his dance partner, Sam was here to prove that age is just a number.
As the opening notes of“Pink Cadillac” by Jerry Lee Lewis began to play, Sam and Autumn jumped straight into action – and it took seconds for them to prove their worth on stage.
You won’t have seen anything like their dance moves before, unless you know about the different variations of shag.
Shag is a two-person, male-led dance that has a basic step that allows for plenty of improvisation and imagination.
The style of dance is most commonly associated with the beach towns of North Carolina and South Carolina, hence why it’s a perfect fit or the Carolina Classic competition category.
Most of Sam and Autumn’s choreography is focused on their footwork, which is typical of the shag dance style.
Their synchronized rock-stepping is almost hypnotizing to watch, and, while their performance looks easy, it’s clear that years of practice must be needed to make the moves look so simple.
There are so many talking points of the dance – especially when Sam starts spinning around on one leg.
Unsurprisingly, the audience can’t stop cheering and applauding Sam and Autumn throughout their performance.
It’s clear that the pair came here with the goal of winning the Carolina Classic award, and despite their competition putting up a good fight, Sam and Autumn were placed first.
After footage of the dance was shared on YouTube, the video quickly went viral. The video has been viewed more than 5 million times!
No one in the comments could understand how any human being could be capable of dancing like Sam and Autumn.
While Autumn is undoubtedly an incredible dancer, it’s Sam that most people were fixated by.
One viewer wrote:
“If that man walked into a club and danced his unique moves, everyone would sit their inadequate butts down.”
Someone else asked:
“What kind of oil does Sam use to keep those knees working… love it! 😍”
We’d love to know the answer to that too! Sam isn’t a young man, but he’s got the moves of someone half his age.
There was no couple more deserving of taking the number one place in the competition than Sam and Autumn.
The pair obviously have a whole lot of chemistry, and it shows through in their solid performance! You can watch the full video of their incredible dance routine below.
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