---
title: "Shim sham tap dance starting foot"
description: "Shim sham tap dance starting foot, and how a time step on one foot becomes the other."
canonical_url: "https://dancermirror.com/guides/practise-tap-dance-time-steps-and-shim-sham-on-both-feet"
md_url: "https://dancermirror.com/guides/practise-tap-dance-time-steps-and-shim-sham-on-both-feet.md"
last_updated: "2026-10-24"
status: published
---

# Shim sham tap dance starting foot

Shim sham tap dance starting foot is why a jam can start together. The shim sham most rooms still share begins on the right. A time step your teacher showed on the right still has to exist on the left. Listen before you look. A facing close-up of shoes swaps the shoe you think spoke.

**Short answer.** Shim sham tap dance starting foot, in the version danced at the end of many jams, is the right foot. Learn that start before you decorate it. A time step shown on one foot still needs the other foot. Slow the clip until you can name the shoe, then sketch the other side only if the step stays in place. Dancer Mirror does not download videos. It keeps the sound with the picture.

- The common shim sham starts together on the right.
- Time steps alternate. A flip is a sketch, not the class.
- Dancer Mirror does not download videos.

**Takeaway.** Learn the sound order. Then see which shoe made it. Flip only to sketch the other side of a step that stays under you.

## Where does the shim sham start?

On the right, in the shim sham people use so a room of strangers can finish together. If your teacher taught a variant, their count wins. The encyclopedia page is the shared history, including that families of the step differ. Do not lose the room because you preferred a version you found later.

Count the break they gave you. The start is often thrown away by dancers who begin on the pretty part. The pretty part is late if the right foot did not open it. Stamp that opening, slowly, until it is insulting. Then let it be music.

A history of the step is [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shim_Sham).

**Mark the start, then the step you were actually given**

| Bar | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Yours | right | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

## How do you get the other time step?

Your teacher may have shown a single, double, or triple time step on the right and then said 'and the left' while packing up. The left is not a feeling. It is the same sounds with the other shoe leading. If the step stays under you, a flip of the right-foot clip is a picture of that idea. Dance two bars. Listen. If a flap happened on the wrong shoe, the sketch failed and you need the teacher.

If the time step travels, do not flip it and call the result the left. Travelling tap changes its path when the lead shoe changes. Mark it 'ask'. Practise the in-place version until class.

The picture flip is the [mirror guide](https://dancermirror.com/guides/how-to-mirror-a-dance-video). Shoes make a bad flip obvious if you listen.

## Sound first, picture second

Tap is a drum. A flipped picture that loses the order of the sounds is useless even if the legs look clever. Slow the clip, but keep the sound attached. If quarter speed turns the taps into a groan you cannot parse, use half speed and fewer counts. You are hunting one late shoe, not a science film.

Film your own feet from the waist down, from the side, once. The teacher's front angle is a demonstration. Your side angle is the lateness. Watch it once. Name the late shoe. Loop that shoe. Do not film a second take until you can say the correction.

## Where you practise

A rug eats taps and teaches a heavy leg. A wooden floor in a flat annoys the people under you. A board, a piece of plywood, or a studio hour is the honest surface. Ten minutes on a board beats an hour of silent taps on carpet that will not exist at the jam.

Shoes with the screws still in them, if that is how you dance. Practising in socks and performing in taps is two dances. You already know this. You will still try it when you are tired. Don't.

## Class footage, not a film musical

Dancer Mirror does not download videos. The file is the one from class, feet in frame, counted. A film clip of a famous dancer is a different step with the same name. Enjoy it after you can start the shim sham with the room.

Label right-foot files as right-foot. The left-foot sketch, if you made one by flipping, gets its own name. You will otherwise 'correct' yourself into the side you already had.

## Sources

- [What the app does today](https://dancermirror.com/features)
- [How it works](https://dancermirror.com/how-it-works)
- [Shim Sham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shim_Sham)

Practise the side you see. Download from the stores linked on the download page.