Year of the Dog, Year to Clog!

2018, the Year of the Dog! With a capital D and that rhymes with C and that stands for clog! (That was for you, Jordan.)

Holiday break is over for most dance studios, but there's still time to contemplate your current status and goals for 2018; Chinese New Year begins Friday, February 16.

Road to the crown: Miss Southeastern Clogger Pageant (PART TWO)

Interested in trying a clogger pageant? Kaley Conn and Summer Hanson from Clogging Connection (Florida) share the preparation techniques that helped them win crowns at the Miss Southeastern Clogger Pageant

Beauty and the beats: Miss Southeastern Clogger Pageant (PART ONE)

Anybody else clueless but curious about clogger pageants? I've seen ladies wearing crowns and sashes passing out awards at clogging competitions and that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge on this topic. 

Enter Kaley Conn, who was recently crowned Overall Queen for ages 12+ in the Miss Southeastern Clogger Pageant. One of Kaley's first missions as Queen is to spread the word about this pageant after she and a younger teammate both had wonderful experiences with the event

TWO are knighted Clogger of the Year!

Cloggers (and non-dancing folks) want their hard work and accomplishments recognized! Fancy Free holds an awards banquet to recap each year before a new one begins. It's also a great excuse to eat!

The audience doesn't know the half of it!

I feel sorry for the audience at big shows. Sure, they get to sit in comfy seats and get the best views of all the razzle dazzle, but they don't know the inside jokes that develop during rehearsal, the hustle and bustle of keeping performers and props where they need to be, the last-minute adjustments due to mistakes or malfunctions, or the goofy things we all do while waiting in the wings. The audience is missing out!

Parade at night? Let there be light!

Christmas season calls for parades. Night parades call for lights. HomeTown HoliDazzle in Wilmington, Ohio combines all of this and more! 

Fancy Free Cloggers once again snagged a spot in the parade lineup. This event is perfect to get FFC in the mood for our upcoming performances in the Murphy Theatre's Cartoon Christmas!

Holiday gifts for cloggers!

Even the savviest holiday shopper may find it difficult to check clogging relatives off the shopping list. It's not like you can camp outside the local clogging superstore on Black Friday and fill a cart with bargains. (We can dream about it, though!) Here's a list of ideas to get you started:

Pretty Little Angel Eyes - national dance list/fun dance challenge update

"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!

It doesn't have to be complicated.

Fancy Free Cloggers celebrated Halloween, which conveniently fell on our usual class night, with a simple party. Nothing crazy. Evie cooked up a pot of chili, everybody contributed a snack (My cheese ball was such hard work, ha-ha!), and we showed up in costumes, ready to dance and eat! Evie's Halloween decorations have been in the studio all month, so all she needed to do was set up a few tables. 

My first four weeks with Tapped Out, the world's clogging team.

Clogging in my oh-so-glamorous unfinished basement is no longer a solitary pursuit, at least not on Monday nights. My new teammates in Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, and other faraway lands dance right along with me during Tapped Out class! 

Dance studio games: treasure hunt

Need a party game for an event at the clogging studio? Try a treasure hunt! I had so much fun creating an outdoor treasure hunt for Clog Camp at Fancy Free Studio last weekend, I decided to write clues for an indoor dance studio treasure hunt. We have unique decor at FFC Studio (Bean Chicken, I'm lookin' at you!), but these clues focus on items visible at dance classes everywhere. Customize as needed to fit your location.

Clog. Search for monsters. Typical weekend, right?

Fancy Free Cloggers made our annual trek to West Virginia to perform with the Riverside Cloggers and enjoy the kookiness and spookiness that is the Mothman Festival. As usual, the town of Point Pleasant did not disappoint!

Dance book review: Tasha the Tap Dance Fairy

I thought I found just a cute series of children's books about dancing fairies. Nope! I also found an explanation for my mistakes in dance class! There are over 200 books in the Rainbow Magic collection, which has been going strong since 2003. A new title came out in September of 2017, and a little online research revealed another series release scheduled for May, 2018.

Walking 500 miles at NCHC Nationals...

The hotel was decorated for Alice In Wonderland, but "500 Miles" felt like the real theme at NCHC Nationals over Labor Day weekend. Dancers and spectators alike met their step goals for the day!

Why? The Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center is ENORMOUS! Don't bother being in a hurry to get anywhere. Just enjoy the experience; there is plenty to see while you figure out where stuff is.

The best-laid plans of cloggers...

Things were going so smoothly at FFC Studio! Recent rehearsals significantly improved our competition routines in preparation for NCHC Nationals in Nashville this weekend.

For once, Fancy Free Cloggers started the final practice without a list of last-minute changes in response to an injury or other emergency. We even finished competition stuff EARLY and started reviewing routines for an upcoming show with our friends the Riverside Cloggers!

Bring back your beginner fire!

Even the most enthusiastic veteran clogger benefits from a visit to beginner dance class! Remember when you first started, and double toes were AMAZING?! How you practiced EVERYWHERE, driving friends and family bonkers?  If those days and feelings seem far removed from your current outlook, hang out with a group of new dancers and remember the joy!

What ripples? Altering clogging routines to fit different rule sets.

Once a team dances a clogging routine for a while, it's easy to overlook the components of the routine. Case in point: It took WEEKS for Fancy Free Cloggers competition team to realize we had not one, but THREE ripples in our open line!

FFC attends competitions sanctioned by different clogging organizations. The categories and rules vary for each, but our competition routines generally work for all with minor tweaks.

Return to Hoedown Island, with a surprise...

Fancy Free Cloggers made the trip to Natural Bridge State Park in Slade, KY for our annual cookout and featured night to perform at Hoedown Island!

This hidden treasure of the clogging world holds a fun dance every Saturday night during the season.