"Pretty Little Angel Eyes" is officially in the repertoire for Fancy Free Cloggers! When's the next fun dance? 

FFC enjoyed learning this bouncy routine as part of the national dance list/fun dance challenge. Many teammates already knew and loved the routine but hadn't performed it in years. The rest fell in love as soon as I played the music!

I didn't realize how many of my favorites were choreographed by Steve Smith until I started choosing routines for this project! FFC has tackled "Bad Moon Rising" and "Callin' Baton Rouge" and "High Horse" specifically for the challenge. Some of his other dances were already in regular rotation at FFC Studio.

Clogging class this week pointed out another advantage of the national dance list/fun dance challenge: When a clogger with previous experience on other teams walked through the door, we already had routines in common!

Donetta is looking to return to the clogging world, so she stopped by to check out FFC Studio. I LOVE that we were able to throw on music and immediately start dancing together!

That's Donetta and me dancing "Ida Red" in the photo above. She remembered "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" with just a small refresher and of course requested "Rocky Top" before class ended!

"Pretty Little Angel Eyes" is listed as an intermediate dance. The last couple steps in Part B are the trickiest. Steve's choreography is a perfect match to the music! 

The cue sheet I found online contains a minor error, not in the cue sheet itself but in the handwritten labels to the side. The first section labeled as A should actually be labeled as INTRO. 

As with any fun dance, variations abound. Since shuffles can be especially problematic for cloggers with joint problems, a jazz box is a common substitution in this routine. The advanced dancers put their own spin on things, and you can find many a video online to give you ideas.

This video of the Bull Run Cloggers and the Calico Cloggers (both from Virginia) provides an excellent example of dancing the routine as written. Some dancers are performing the jazz box substitution, so you'll be able to see how that blends.

I look forward to performing "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" at an upcoming show! 

Not sure which routine FFC will learn next from the CLOG National Dance List. "Sold" was already in my mind, but a teammate has requested "Mamma Mia". I've also been meaning to dust off "All Shook Up" for our beginner class. We'll get to them all, it's just a question of what order. 

Does YOUR team dance "Pretty Little Angel Eyes"? Do you have a preferred substitution or variation on any of the steps?