2 3 What’s in a Name? | Ballet Webb

Thursday, April 12, 2018

What’s in a Name?



What’s in a Name?

There’s a story behind many dance steps and how they came to get their name. One interesting one involves the tap step “tack annie”, the third step of the Shim Sham Shimmy.

Supposedly it was named after a person named Annie, a chorus girl who swayed back and worth as she struggled with police officers who were trying to arrest her. The neighborhood kids crowded around to watch yelling “They’re ‘tacking Annie!”.


They got the tack annie from a Tap dancer called Jack Wiggins who did a thing called ‘Pull it’. He used to say to the audience: ‘Do you want me pull it’. The answer was usually ‘Yes!’. Once he was performing to the audience, where was also his girlfriend Annie, Jack said those words again and added: ‘Annie next step may be tacky, but I gonna do it for you!’ 

Do you think either story is true?!

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Factoid #129:
“It is said that the “tack annie” part of the tap step Shim Sham Shimmy, was named after a person.”

Link of the Day:

Quote of the Day:
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
― Philip Pullman

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