Also for the thread - Rhett Krause and Tony Barrand researched clog dancing on the American Music Hall in the late 1800s / early 1900s. And Tony has thoroughly documented the dances of the Marley family.

Also apparently clog dancing was as popular in the US as it was in the UK. And professional stage clog dancers toured the Western world 'following the sun' so to speak to perform during in the summer season shows from the UK to the US to Australia and New Zealand.

And by clog dancing I mean with wooden-soled shoes aka English clogs.

There are now numerous web sites of old newspapers scanned and searchable for Australia (free) and New Zealand (free). And a search for 'clogs' or 'clog dance' etc. usually results in fascinating articles of clog champions, competitions, clog dance challenges, and instructional classes.

I would assume the same is true in the USA - actually it is true because Rhett's research (written up in the CDSS Journel) has shown this.

The sad thing in the UK is that many dancers have become enamoured with what is termed 'Appalachian precision clogging' or rather a kind of commercialised and highly choreographed folkish tap-dancing. They're good performers but they have neglected our own highly variable step dance traditions which have all but become extinct.

Also too dancers in the US have completely ignored their own endemic clog dancing (wooden-soled shoes) traditions. Tony Barrand has republished many of the old instructional books fromthe 1800s that are languishing forgotten in the archives of various American libraries (Sands, James, Tucker, and others) - but no-one is interpreting and perfoming the dances described therein.

And what about the books by Helen Frost? There are some gem routines in those.

Incidentally an undocumented clog dancing 'tradition' comes from the YMCA's in New York and Chicago (I think) where they held acrobatic clog dancing classes in the early 1900s.

And finally there is the myth that the origins of American 'clogging' aka 'flat footing,' e.g chugging etc., comes variably from the native Americans (which I personally doubt, I mean how can you make tapping sounds in mocasins or bare feet on soft earth?), or the African slaves on the plantations.

But no-one has researched the link of the cotton trade between the Southern plantations and the Lancashire cotton mills. The plantations were frequently owned by Lancashire cotton mill owners. We know that the quadrilles were exported from the UK to the Southern plantations and that some slaves were frequently invited (maybe ordered?) to learn the dances or to play the music for them. So how about Lancashire clog dancing? Did that also travel to the South and was taught to the slaves?