It's probably not the most difficult or showy step you know, but I bet there was a clogging step along the way that made you feel like you arrived as a dancer. The one you practiced nonstop until it was mastered. 

For me, this step was the buck basic. Oddly, I clogged for years before knowing this step existed! It wasn't in any dances my childhood team performed, and we were pretty isolated from other cloggers. I didn't even know workshops were a thing! Yes, this was before everybody had cell phones, before the internet, before YouTube...

I joined the Midnight Cloggers while in college and was thrilled to be learning new steps and routines! They were wonderful about welcoming me and helping me get caught up as soon as possible. There were many steps and routines to learn, but nothing was a totally new concept.

One night, the director decided to bring back an old but beloved routine choreographed by team founder Bruce Wolfe. She started up Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Down at the Twist and Shout" and demonstrated the dance. Other teammates jumped in, with an occasional groan when the next step wouldn't come to mind. 

The choreography was full of buck basics! I stared at their feet, trying to figure out how they were making those extra sounds without taking up more beats than a regular basic.

Learning that step was the most clumsy I have ever felt in a clogging class!  I've never been known for grace, so that is saying something. 

Before class was finished that evening, I was hitting buck basics in the routine sometimes, but getting tripped up if I hesitated or missed the weight shift by even a tiny bit. My mission before the next class was clear.

Apologies to my roommates Becky and Mansie; they got to listen to my feet making those 7 sounds nonstop. To make matters worse, I was usually calling it, too! Double-ball-heel-ball-heel-step! Double-ball-heel-ball-heel-step!

I felt like a rock star the first time I got to perform that dance in a show! Even though my current team does an easy fun dance to that song, it always takes me back to learning buck basics!

Thank you, Margie, Betty, Bruce, and the rest of the Midnight Cloggers!

Want to learn buck basics? Here's a video from kerriclogs:

What clogging step made YOU most proud of yourself?