How low can you go?
We guarantee that it’s nowhere as low as Shemika Charles, who calls herself the Limbo Queen.
The Trinidad-born Charles is a two-time Guinness World Record holder for limbo dancing. Last year she set the record for limboing the longest distance — a little more than 10 feet — under 12 inches.
In September 2010 she set the women’s Guinness record for shimmying under the lowest bar — set at 8.5 inches off the floor. She did it on the set of “Live! with Regis and Kelly.”
Since then millions have watched Charles limbo underneath the most improbable things. She’s performed on “America’s Got Talent” and posts videos to her Facebook page, “The Limbo Queen Shemika Charles.”
Her motto: “I will limbo under anything.”
Last month she went viral when someone shot a cell phone video of her limboing under a row of airport seats in Philadelphia on her way to perform in a Wisconsin Badgers basketball halftime show.
Piece of cake, she told WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, N.Y., where she lives.
“It’s kind of the norm for me,” she said. “Like I’ve done a lot lower than that, and I’ve done it before as a regular stretch.”
But it’s a recent video that Charles posted over the weekend that brought her even bigger fame — and a guest spot on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” airing Wednesday.
Charles limboed under a Toyota while balancing a tray of drinks in each hand.
She didn’t spill a drop.
Charles migrated to the United States with her family when she was six. Her mother left Trinidad and Tobago to join her family’s band, Caribbean Extravangaza, as a lead singer and limbo dancer.
“I began my limbo training at the age of 14 when our family steelband got an offer to perform at the Florida State Fair in 2006,” she told a newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago two years ago.
“My mother was once a limbo dancer in our band for 16 years but retired from limbo dancing shortly before we received the offer. There is where I did my very first performance just six weeks after I began my training.
“I have been a part of our family band as a singer, keyboard player and as the featured limbo dancer traveling and performing all over the U.S. ever since.”
She told the Buffalo TV station last month that she still has a couple of big goals in mind – to limbo under several cars and to limbo backwards.
She can cross meeting Ellen off her list.
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