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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Claymore Folklore: English Clog Dancing/ Clogging (34) RE: Folklore: English Clog Dancing/ Clogging 11 Aug 03


In the Panhandle region of West Viginia, the individual style is called "flat footing" and is done in heavy shoes, but no taps or clogs. It derives directly from the Irish "sean nos" or "Old Time", style of what was also called "kitchen dancing".

When a bunch of us (some 15 musicians and four cloggers), went to Ireland a couple of years ago, the cloggers were a big hit, and when we played on one of the Irish TV shows, an old man came out of the audience, and began dancing many of the same steps as our folks, and after the end of the show, we got to talk to him in English (the show was done in Gaelic). He apparently was one of the major proponets of bringing back "sean nos" dancing, and since then our cloggers have been conducting yearly classes in Ireland to teach the Irish many of the steps they forgot, as well as various combinations of steps.

The cloggers around here speak dismissively of what you call "precision" clogging as "white shoes" dancing, and claim it is more akin to square dancing than clogging.

I don't dance; I just play, so I would be interested in sorting it all out too.


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