THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510250185
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
For the two months, Peter Kemp has dressed up in shirt and tie and stepped out on Monday nights for some dancing.
His partner is quite a bit taller and a little older than Peter, but they both enjoy the dance.
Peter, 11, is a sixth-grader at Lynnhaven Middle School.
He's been learning how to shag at Stepping Out, a beach music club in Hilltop.
Peter's partner is Rowena Kemp, his mom, age undisclosed.
Long before Pat Conroy, author of a recently published fiction novel, ``Beach Music,'' ever wrote his first published sentence, people have shagged to beach music at colleges and clubs throughout the Southeast.
The shag has been declared the official state dance of South Carolina, Conroy's home.
Peter Kemp is one of about 30 children who have been learning the shag and the beach music tradition on Monday nights.
Kathy and Larry Williams, members of the Virginia Beach Shag Club, have been teaching the shag since 1987 and started holding the junior classes at Stepping Out in July.
Recently the club had a combination chili cook-off/fund-raiser and the young shaggers showed off what they had learned.
``It's to teach them the dance, sure,'' said Larry Williams, 50, ``and to keep them busy like people did for us.''
The junior shaggers receive a history lesson, too, said Bertie Lull.
A member of the Shag Hall of Fame, Lull introduced her grandson, Alexander Gallo, to the dance during summer visits.
The 10-year-old comes down from the unlikely-shag spot of Bergen County, N.J., to learn grandma's dance.
``Oh, yes, I got him started and now it's all he listens to down here,'' said Lull, a South Hampton Roads native who ticked off the local hot spots of shagging from decades past - the Peppermint and the Top Hat in Virginia Beach; the Mecca and Ocean View's oldNansemond Hotel in Norfolk.
``It wasn't even called beach music back then,'' she said. ``All it is, is rhythm-and-blues. And it's still the best music.''
A lot of other people must agree with her. Tickets to the local shag club's fifth-annual Beach Bash at the Oceanfront this weekend sold out quickly.
Monica Blackford, 9, who was learning the steps in the kids' class is a fan.
Asked what she thought of the music pumping through the Stepping Out speakers, she said, ``I like it. I've been here three or four times.''
What music does she listen to at home?
``A guy named Jimmy Buffett,'' she said. ``Have you ever heard of him?''
Like Alexander, Monica is a third-generation shagger.
She attended the chili party/dance with her grandparents, Joe and Greta Wolf.
Fran Harris remembers the dance from her days at what was then Old Dominion College.
The pre-school teacher and shag club member watched Karen Gorman and her son, Grant, twirling and sliding out on the floor.
Grant, 11, is a classmate of Peter's at Lynnhaven Middle School.
``Karen just won first place in a regional shag competition,'' said Harris. ``She and her partner, Billy White, won the Amateur Classic Division.''
Grant Garmon has been shagging since the summertime and said ``the music's OK.''
What does he listen to at home?
``96X,'' a modern rock station, he said, with a shy smile. MEMO: In addition to Stepping Out, the Virginia Beach Shag Club will be
offering lessons two Sundays a month at the YMCA at Mount Trashmore
starting in November.
Call Peter Jones at 422-0517.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS
Rowena Kemp and her son, Peter, dance the shag at Stepping Out, a
beach music club in Hilltop in Virginia Beach.
by CNB