Sheila Jo Spencer

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Clogging under pressure!

Wish me luck, folks! This weekend, I will be dancing with Fancy Free Cloggers at the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival (Ohio). Several clogging teams perform throughout the day at this festival. I generally love these events, where you get to watch other teams and socialize.

However, I must admit to being nervous about one of our dances. You see, this will be our debut of "Geronimo" and it will happen with the choreographer watching. I attended the World of Clogging workshop in Kentucky with a couple teammates and learned this dance from Naomi Zweben of the Yellow Rose Cloggers.  Guess who is dancing immediately after us at the Sweet Corn Festival? Yes, the Yellow Rose Cloggers!

I hope we do you proud, Naomi! You'll notice we made minor tweaks, such as turning a different direction with the airplane arms to be consistent with the standard way our team does that move. We have enjoyed learning your dance and we're excited to start putting it in shows!

My most nerve-wracking and coolest clogging moment involved dancing in front of the artist who does the song. At the Bob Evans Farm Festival, my team danced to "Sadie's Got Her New Dress On" by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver were featured performers at the festival later that day. After our show, someone asked my director if we were willing to come back that afternoon and perform the dance for Doyle. OF COURSE WE WILL!

We reassembled onstage as Doyle Lawson was introduced with much applause. He stood approximately 5 feet away from me during that dance and I had 2 thoughts running through my head the whole time:

1. This is AWESOME!

2. PLEASE don't let me screw this dance up!

It went well and we got a photo with Doyle (and a member of Quicksilver) afterwards!

Maybe Naomi will let us get a pic with her this weekend if Geronimo looks okay...

What makes YOU nervous during a clogging performance? Feel free to share in the comments!
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