Clogging

This article is about a form of folk dance practised in the United States, but originally from Ireland. For other forms of clog dance, see clog-dancing. For the construction of wooden clogs, see clog. For the phenomenon in flush toilets, see flush toilet § Clogging.

Clogging is a type of folk dance practiced in the United States, in which the dancer's footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythms, usually to the downbeat with the heel keeping the rhythm.

Clogging is the official state dance of Kentucky and North Carolina.

Description

A pair of used, white clogging shoes.

In later periods, it was not always called "clogging", being known variously as foot-stomping, buck dancing, clog dancing, jigging, or other local terms. What all these had in common was emphasizing the downbeat of the music by enthusiastic footwork. As for the shoes, many old clogging shoes had no taps and some were made of leather and velvet, while the soles of the shoes were either wooden or hard leather.

Clogging can be divided into five major categories: 1) shuffle clogging, 2) cadence clogging, 3) rhythm clogging, 4) stomp clogging, and 5) buck-dancing.

The shuffle clogging style is said to be the most popular style for bluegrass music cloggers while rhythm and stomp clogging are more popular with old-time music cloggers. What sets clogging apart from other dance styles such as tap dancing is the lack of upper body movement used during performance like Irish Sean-nós dance which had significant influence on the origins of the dance. While tap dancers place emphasis on stage presence and arm movements, cloggers limit their upper body movement, focusing primarily on their feet.

Antecedents

In the United States, team clogging originated from square dance teams in Asheville, North Carolina's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival (1928), organized by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in the Appalachian region.

The Soco Gap Dancers performed at the White House in 1939, which caused an uptick in the popularity of team clogging.

American Clogging is associated with the predecessor to bluegrass—"old-time" music, which is based on English, and Irish fiddle tunes as well as African American banjo tunes. Clogging primarily developed from Irish step dancing called Sean-nós dance; there were also English, Scottish, German, and Cherokee step dances, as well as African rhythms and movement influences too. It was from clogging that tap dance eventually evolved. Now, many clogging teams compete against other teams for prizes such as money and trophies.

Terminology

The term "buck", as in buck dancing, is traceable to the West Indies and is derived from a Tupi Indian word denoting a frame or hurdle for drying and smoking meat; the original po bockarau or buccaneers were sailors who smoked meat and fish after the manner of the Indians. Another source states that the word bockorau can be traced to the "Angolan" word "buckra', and was used to refer to white people, which is disputed. Eventually the term came to describe Irish immigrant sailors whose jig dance was known as 'the buck'."

Another origin of the term buck dance comes from the idea that this style of dance was a flirtation. The male dancer would show off his skills on the dance floor to attract the female, thus being compared to the buck's (male deer) courting ritual of the doe (female deer).

One source states that buck dancing was the earliest combination of the basic shuffle and tap steps performed to syncopated rhythms in which accents are placed not on the straight beat, as with the jigs, clogs, and other dances of European origin, but on the downbeat or offbeat, a style derived primarily from the rhythms of African tribal music.

Yet another etymology of the word argues that it derives from the word "buck", used as a pejorative term for African American men in the 19th century. Buck dancing was popularized in America by minstrel performers in the late 19th century. Many folk festivals and fairs utilize dancing clubs or teams to perform both Buck and regular clogging for entertainment.

Traditional Appalachian clogging is characterized by loose, often bent knees and a "drag-slide" motion of the foot across the floor, and is usually performed to old-time music.

See also

• Buckdancer's Choice
• Clog dancing
• Ira Bernstein
• Limberjack
• Sean-nós dance including as practised in America
• Step dance

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Ames, Jerry; Siegelman, Jim (1977), The Book of Tap, David McKay Company, ISBN 0-679-50615-2
• History of clogging, Adelaide Bluegrass Cloggers, archived from the original on 15 October 2009, retrieved 24 April 2010
• Cahill, Mike (14 June 2008), Clogs, archived from the original on 5 March 2016, retrieved 20 February 2016
• Chambers, Douglas B (1 March 2005), Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 978-1578067060
• Chuku, Gloria (17 August 2012), "Enslaved Igbo and the Foundation of Afro-Virginia Slave Culture and Society", ChickenBones, Nathaniel Turner, retrieved 20 February 2016 Review and criticism of Chambers (2005)

• "Clogging: How it's different from tap", Dance Spirit, Dance Media, 24 June 2009, retrieved 20 February 2016
• Hashaw, Tim (2007), Children of Perdition: Melungeons and the struggle of mixed America, Mercer University Press, ISBN 978-0-88146-013-1, retrieved 20 February 2016
• Spalding, Susan Eike; Woodside, Jane Harris, eds. (1995), Communities in Motion: dance, community, and tradition in America's Southeast and beyond, Westport, Connecticut, US: Greenwood Press
• Frank X. Bonner (1983) Clogging and the Southern Appalachian Square Dance, Creative Imprints of Marietta, Georgia, US