Middle-aged to older adult male and female dancing in an indoor dance studio or event space with soft overhead lighting. 3:40
AshleyandTobitha Stewart channel icon AshleyandTobitha StewartOriginal creator 2.5M views Save

A Carolina Shag smooth enough to win it all

Jay Rollins and Tobitha Stewart face each other on the stage at the USA Grand National Dance Championship, hands clasped. Their dance is the Carolina Shag. more

The music is "Boogie the Joint" by Buddy Skipper and the Code Blues Band. Jay and Tobitha fall in with it, and their steps land right on the beat.

A man and a woman stand facing each other on a stage with their hands clasped together. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Jay and Tobitha face each other, hands clasped, in the middle of their Carolina Shag.

The Carolina Shag grew up on the beaches of South Carolina. In the 1940s it was the dance of the young crowd there. Southern Living magazine once described its mood as a warm night, a date and no plans for tomorrow.

Jay and Tobitha keep that easy mood. Nothing looks forced, and they stay matched step for step. A fellow dancer named Ann put it plainly. She called them smooth, in sync and very good.

A man and a woman dance together on a wooden floor under stage lights. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Jay and Tobitha move in step across the wooden floor under the stage lights.

None of this is new to them. Tobitha and her husband, Ashley, were inducted into the National Living Legends of Dance, and Jay earned the same honor a few years later. Jay and Tobitha both teach the shag in North Carolina.

At this championship, the years of work pay off. The top prize goes to Jay and Tobitha.

Middle-aged to older adult male and female dancing in an indoor dance studio or event space with soft overhead lighting. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Jay Rollins and Tobitha Stewart face each other on the stage at the USA Grand National Dance Championship, hands clasped.

Decades after its beach days, the shag still looks like a warm night with no plans for tomorrow. It just takes two Living Legends to make it look that easy.

#dancing