The basic shag is performed free and easy with just a little bit of cool attitude. At parties, you can often see a shagging couple roll down the center aisle of two lines of dancers, who cheer and watch. Then each couple comes from either side of the line, joins at the start and shags down to the end.
A couple's dance, the man and the woman face each other but there is no hold as with traditional ballroom dancing. Your arms (when not holding your partner's one hand) should hang free and easy at your waist while bent at the elbow. The dance is forward and backward, not side to side or twisting.
To start, the man and woman should face each other. The woman gives her right hand to the man who gently holds it with his left, his thumb on her palm. The shag is all about being close to the floor, smooth, not sharp movements. The actual dance really only starts from the knees down. Your feet should never be flat to the floor and you should think suave soft-shoe, rather than stomping or tapping. Now that you have the basic stance, you must learn the basic eight steps that make up the count of the dance.
The rhythm of the basic steps is counted out as one-and-two, three-and-four, five, six. On "one," the man leads with his left foot and the woman with her right. Next, on "and," the man then brings his right foot forward and the woman mirrors with her left. Each is now standing with feet parallel. On "two" the left foot goes backward for the man and the right does the same for the woman. On "three" the man's right foot and the woman's left foot go all the way back behind his or her opposite foot. On "and" the man just shifts his weight to his left foot and the woman to her right foot. Neither should step forward or backward though at this point. Then on "four" do the same on the opposite foot. On "five," the man steps back with his left and the woman steps back with her right. On "six" step up with the right for the gentleman and up with the left for the lady.
Now that you have the basic eight steps, start it all over,again with the man leading with his left foot and the woman with her right just as before. This time now that you have the count down, add a little bit of attitude, and you are doing the shag.