International Tap Dance Day · 25 May 2026

The Shim Sham:
Why the Whole World
Taps Together ✦

The story behind tap’s most beloved routine — and why dancing it together means more than you might think.

By the GTW Team  ·  Glittery Tapping Wonderland, Mordialloc

Every year on May 25, tap dancers all over the world do something remarkable: they stop whatever class, rehearsal, or show they’re in the middle of — and they tap the same routine. The same steps, the same rhythm, the same music, rippling across studios from Mordialloc to Manhattan, Melbourne to Mumbai. That routine is the Shim Sham. And right now, you or your child has been learning it in class, ready to join in.

But where did this tradition come from? Why this particular dance? And what does it mean to move in unison with thousands of people you’ve never met? We did the research — here’s the story.

Why May 25?

International Tap Dance Day falls on May 25 because that is the birthday of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson — one of the most gifted and celebrated tap dancers in history, born on that date in 1878. Robinson transformed tap from a novelty act into a sophisticated art form, and his influence is woven into everything your dancer does in class today.

The official recognition came in 1989, when US President George H.W. Bush signed legislation into law creating National Tap Dance Day — the result of a passionate campaign by tap enthusiasts Linda Christensen, Carol Vaughn, and Nicola Daval, who wanted the artform preserved and celebrated for generations to come. Since then, the celebration has spread well beyond American borders. Australia, Japan, India, Iceland — tap dancers everywhere mark the day.

The Shim Sham — tap’s national anthem

If there’s one thing tap dancers everywhere agree on, it’s the nickname: the Shim Sham is called the “National Anthem of Tap.” And like any great anthem, it belongs to everyone who knows it. When the music starts, dancers fall into formation without a word. It’s a kind of magic — and it’s nearly a hundred years old.

The story begins in the late 1920s in Chicago. Tap dancers Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant were performing with the Whitman Sisters — one of the most celebrated and longest-running song-and-dance troupes in American history. The sisters asked Reed and Bryant to create a finale that the entire cast could perform together, regardless of ability. So, on the day of the show, the pair headed to the basement of the Grand Theatre and put together a single-chorus routine built from four tap sequences that chorus girls of the era already knew well. They called it the “Goofus,” after the playful, slightly goofy way they performed it — often to the bouncy tune of “Turkey in the Straw.”

The routine spread like glitter through Harlem in the early 1930s. It became the closing number at nightclubs including Connie’s Inn, the Lafayette Theatre, and eventually a club called Dickie Wells’s Shim Sham Club — which is almost certainly where the dance got its new name. By the time it was known as the Shim Sham Shimmy (a shoulder shake had been added along the way), it was being danced not just by performers but by waiters, musicians, and audience members invited onstage to join in.

That’s always been the point. The Shim Sham was never designed for the virtuoso. It was designed for everyone.

From Harlem to your living room

The Shim Sham’s reach expanded enormously thanks to Frankie Manning, a legendary Lindy Hop dancer who adapted it for swing dancers at the Savoy Ballroom. Manning’s version — performed without tap shoes, in line dance formation — became a tradition at swing dances worldwide. Whenever the song ‘Tain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That Cha Do It) came on, the dance floor would spontaneously reorganise itself into lines and the whole room would move as one.

That image — strangers falling into step together, moved by the same rhythm — is what Tap Dance Day is really celebrating.

Today there are multiple beloved versions of the Shim Sham — Reed’s original, the Frankie Manning Lindy Hop version, the Savoy Shim Sham, and others. New interpretations keep appearing. The dance keeps growing, generation by generation, studio by studio. Your child’s class version is part of that living tradition.

Why dancing together matters

Here’s something worth knowing: the warm glow you feel when a room full of people moves in sync isn’t just sentimental. It’s real, measurable, and genuinely good for you.

Research consistently shows that group dance — especially synchronised movement — builds social bonds, boosts wellbeing, and even improves how we feel about the future. One study found that groups of strangers who danced synchronously together reported feeling like a single unit — a sense of togetherness that lingered well beyond the class. Another found that children from opposing groups lost their negative feelings toward each other after dancing in sync, simply through the shared experience of moving together.

Research published in the Journal of Adolescence found that even online group dance programs significantly improved social bonding and wellbeing — with researchers noting that the benefits of group dance appear to come specifically from the joint nature of the activity, not from individual performance. You don’t have to be good. You just have to be there.

The Shim Sham has known this for a hundred years. It was built to bring people together. Now science is simply catching up.

Join us — Sunday 24 May at GTW ✦

International Tap Dance Day falls on Monday 25 May — but we’re celebrating on the Sunday so every GTW family can be part of it. We’re hosting a free event at the studio, and everyone is welcome: current students, their families, old friends of GTW, and anyone who’s ever wondered what tap dancing feels like.

We’ll tap the Shim Sham together at four different speeds — slow enough for total beginners, fast enough to make the room shake. In between there are nibbles, drinks, a glitter bar, and a photo booth, because this is GTW and we do things properly. And to close the afternoon, we’re running a Glitterization Workshop for those who want to add a little sparkle to their tap shoes. (Spoiler: you will.)

Tap shoes are handy but absolutely not required — you can Shim Sham in socks, sneakers, or bare feet. Just bring yourself, a willingness to have a wonderful time, and maybe a friend or two who hasn’t discovered tap yet. We can fix that.

We can’t wait to tap with you. The whole world will be doing it — and so will we. ✦