Sam West and Leslie Melton Jennings are two professional dancers that competed in the Grand Nationals Carolina Classics division in 2013. This particular video shows them performing a type of dance called Carolina shag with footwork that looks almost impossible to do. If you blink you are sure to miss at least a couple of steps because their feet are just moving so fast that they’re almost flying.
The two dancers are moving so quickly and smoothly that it is just so mesmerizing to watch. At one point Sam even loses a shoe. Does that mess them up? Not one bit! Sam and Leslie did not miss a single beat after the loss of the shoe that you would hardly even notice it was his shoe if you hadn’t seen it fly off of his foot. Leslie even nudged the shoe a little bit after it flew off of Sam’s foot.
Commenters on the video exclaim that Sam is such an amazing dancer in all of his videos. They all agree that no matter which partner Sam is dancing with, they look amazing. The praise for Sam’s talent isn’t hard to believe after watching his complicated footwork throughout this video. Not to mention the loss of the shoe not stopping him.
Sam and Leslie won first place in this competition to no one’s surprise. You can hear over the music in the video, the crowd is cheering them on wholeheartedly. The dance is full of quick moving feet, many spins, and even a couple of little hops. This type of dance is similar to a swing dance but it is called the “South Carolina shag.”
A couple of comments on the YouTube video say that Sam’s legs look like rubber because he is just moving so fast and skillfully. Other people said that it looks like Leslie is walking on air. The talent and time spent practicing dances like this are evident by watching these two professionals. One can only imagine how many hours of hard work were put into learning this dance perfectly.
After the dance had finished, Sam picked up his shoe and tossed it into the crowd. After a second you can see the realization on his face that he actually needs his shoe and he asked for it back. It seems like in his proud moment of successfully finishing the dance, he didn’t think about needing to put his shoe back on. Someone in the crowd slid the shoe across the floor back to him. After getting his shoe back, he kicked it a couple feet before picking it up and walking off of the dance floor with Leslie.
The Carolina shag is definitely not a widely known dance style but Sam and Leslie are a great example to watch if anyone is curious to know what it looks like. They show so much confidence and skill in their performance that they could be doing it completely wrong and we would probably still give them a ten out of ten.
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