We love our clogging steps! Unlike the way it works with cats or children, it is perfectly acceptable to have a favorite clogging step or two.
Here are a few of mine:
Clogger's Dictionary: Cue sheet (noun)
And the clogging tee shirt collection grows larger...
Clogging Book Review: Alfred the Possum On the Road with the Green Grass Cloggers
Twist and shout! Microphone cords are NOT my friends...
Some instructors make it look SO easy: they break down complicated clogging steps without having to stop and do the step in its entirety over and over to figure out the next instruction to give, they transition seamlessly between calling out counts/step names/portions of steps as needed, and they effortlessly run the music and microphone with no glitches whatsoever. Their hair still looks good after teaching all day, and I suspect their forehead sweat doesn't run down into their eyeballs.
Make the most of your clogging workshop experience!
Clogger's Dictionary: Duct tape (noun)
Clogging Poetic: Closing The Studio On A Snowy Evening
Hurry up! Marty Stuart is waiting for you to get out of the bathroom!
From the mouths of babes: 2016 clogging goals
I showed up to our first clogging class of 2016 with notebook in hand and invited my teammates to answer the following questions:
1. What are your clogging goals for 2016?
2. What is your plan to achieve each goal?
It was no surprise to see the kids flock to the table to share their goals. The surprise came the next morning when I read their responses and found plenty of advice to apply to my own life!
Get back into the swing of things!
Christmas/New Year's break is almost over! It will soon be time to return to dance class!
Don't know about you, but I'm expecting to feel a little rusty.
While my studio took only two weeks off (I guess it's technically three, since the last class before Christmas was our awards banquet), we were focused on routines for Christmas shows leading up to the break.
Clogger's Dictionary: One more time (command)
Ida Red, the little black dress of clogging.
The Clog Wild Cloggers of Alabama have a fun video making the rounds on the internet. Two of their dancers were kicking up their heels at a concert and the singer, Jeff Bates, brought them onstage to perform for the crowd!
The dancers, Kay Trimm and Jan Lankford, reacted as so many of us would in their situation: break into a round of Ida Red, then freestyle until the music ends!
Christmas gifts for cloggers!
Adopt a cat, adopt a dog! Pet name ideas that show you clog.
Shake, wattle, and roll: a clogging turkey contest!
It started with an afternoon of simple practice drills. One of our dances for upcoming Christmas shows requires a group including several less-experienced cloggers to enter the stage doing triples as they move to their assigned spots.
We set aside practice time to focus on the concept of covering distance while performing accurate clogging steps. After several rounds of triples traveling across the room, we moved on to turkeys. That's when the real fun began!
Clogger's Dictionary: Call it (verb)
Let's add to our clogging vocabulary! Today's word is a verb, often uttered as a plea, common in clogging classes everywhere: call it. Synonym: cue it.
My official definition is as follows:
Call it (verb): The act of saying the next steps in a clogging routine aloud, generally about 2 beats before the step is to be performed, in order to allow cloggers in the process of learning said routine to get through the dance or a section of the dance for practice purposes.
What's in your clogging bag?
Let's face it: Clogging requires STUFF. Stuff you need to carry and keep organized. Stuff you want to have at the ready without thinking about it.
Over time, most cloggers will accumulate a personal set of essential items to keep in the clogging bag. I actually have TWO clogging bags, depending on the situation.
NaNoWriMo: Not yet a clogging step, but check back with me on December 1st!
This week's post is about something different, but there IS a clogging tie-in, promise!
NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, takes place each November. The goal is to write a total of 50,000 words of your book in a month. (This may or may not actually complete a novel.)
Yours truly is giving it a go for the first time! I am not alone in this. At least one other clogger (Good luck to Kimberly in Dayton, Ohio!) is participating AND she's done it before.
A pumpkin, a princess, and a creepy clown walk into a clogging show...
There's no punch line to follow this title, but it could very well describe the front row lineup of your Halloween clogging show this weekend!
While I won't be clogging at any Halloween events this year, I have done a few in my day. The costume you wear to a friend's party may NOT be the costume you should wear for performance!