About Sister Kate

Sister Kate is an all-female performance troupe based out of Seattle, Washington. Composed of 10 lovely ladies, Sister Kate specializes in vintage dances of the jazz era. Sister Kate’s repertoire includes the Charleston, Vintage Blues and Burlesque, and tributes to the Cotton Club, Busby Berkeley and USO shows of World War II.

Sister Kate has been actively performing around Seattle for five years. We are a self-sustaining volunteer-run organization. From choreography to costumes to administrative up keep, all work is done amongst the members that make up the troupe.

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Who is Sister Kate, Anyways?

“I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate”, or shorter just Sister Kate is an up-tempo jazz dance song, written by Clarence Williams and Armand Piron, and published in 1919. The lyrics of the song are narrated first person by Kate’s “sister”, who sings about Kate’s impressive dancing skill and her wish to be able to emulate it. She laments that she’s not quite “up to date”, but believes that dancing like “Sister Kate” will rectify this, and she will be able to impress “all the boys in the neighborhood” like her sister.

Over the years this song has been performed and recorded by many artists, including Frances Faye and Rusty Warren, and a recent version by pop-folk duo The Ditty Bops, a 1959 version by Shel Silverstein, The Olympics in 1960 (released as Shimmy Like Kate), the Red Onion Band, and a beat version by The Remo Four in 1964. The song arrived in the 1960s-70s folk scene thanks to Dave Van Ronk (recording it twice — In the Tradition (Dave Van Ronk album) and Dave Van Ronk and the Ragtime Jug Stompers) and Jim Kweskin, who made it part of a “Sister Kate’s Night Out” medley on his “Relax Your Mind” album[1] with Mel Lyman and Fritz Richmond.