Folks who participate in other sports have no problem randomly finding items related to their hobbies. Soccer, basketball, football - there is STUFF everywhere! Clogging? Not so much!
My mother-in-law and nephew are visiting from Florida this week, and one of our activities was a trip to Jungle Jim's International Market in Cincinnati, OH. I decided to go on a search for clogging-related merchandise!
Those healthy enough and lucky enough to compete as cloggers into adulthood know that the game changes with time. (Not necessarily a bad thing.) Here are 10 signs that may indicate you are THERE:
10. All costumes must be planned around your most supportive bra - no exceptions!
9. On competition day, the timing of your Aleve/Tylenol dosage is considered crucial strategy.
Bonus of clogging at a local event over a holiday weekend: Former team members are likely to be home visiting and you get to catch up! With a (very) little coaxing, you can even get them on the dance floor! Yep, a person can trade clogging for other hobbies or life pursuits, but those double toes are still there...
My team attended Shindig In The Valley clogging competition last weekend. In addition to some awards and great memories, I walked away with a few observations:
I am the person on my team who packs EVERYTHING in her clogging bag. Need duct tape, shoe polish, band-aids, a granola bar? Sure, it's in there! However, once each team cycled through a costume change, it was unnecessary to dig in the bag. The carpet was covered in discarded bobby pins and safety pins!
It happened to me at a recent performance: broken tap! In this case, a teammate who serves as our shoe repair person replaced it before I went home. Look at that shiny, unscratched toe tap! (Thanks, Bob!)
Bob took it upon himself to learn the task years ago when his son broke a tap shortly before going onstage to compete. There was no shoe vendor at this particular competition.
Today's clogging vocabulary lesson involves a type of performance almost every team does: the nursing home show.
Get ready to move tables and clear some space in the facility dining room!
Here's my formal definition:
Nursing home show (noun): A clogging performance where the dancers bring entertainment to an audience who may not be able to get out to attend other events. Synonyms include retirement home show, rest home show, etc.
Face it: there is a limit to how many clogging steps/routines a person can absorb at once.
I find this fact to be particularly annoying during workshops. "Afternoon fog" is a term bandied about to describe the phenomenon. Basically, your mental fatigue and physical fatigue combine to make a step sequence or entire routine WAY more difficult than it would normally be.
Dirt and scuffs and stains, oh my! Between dance classes and shows, those clogging shoes quickly lose their shine and become less than show-worthy (Not sure that's really a word, but you know what it means.).
Lately, my shoe polish hasn't been cutting it, and I've started a search to find the best products to keep my clogging shoes looking good.
