There is a world full of cool cloggers out there, but very few achieve the 95-years-old-and-still-crushing-it level of cool. My teammate Jim Kimmerly celebrated his birthday this past weekend with not one, but TWO parties in his honor!
Stand-in standards are low at the dance studio...
Would you rather be a shoe or a yoga block? That's actually a trick question; you have no say in the matter!
Choreography of moving dance routines can be tricky! Not only do you have to come up with dance steps, you must also be mindful of formations including who goes where, when they move, and how they get there.
Riverside Cloggers celebrate a decade of dance!
Ten years of clogging calls for a party! (And cake!) Riverside Cloggers of Point Pleasant, WV spent St. Patrick's Day celebrating their first decade as a team. The official anniversary was March 10, but most of the dancers were in Gatlinburg for Smoky Mountain Encore that weekend.
SAA-LUTE! Smoky Mountain Encore 2018
Oinky gets a taste of showbiz!
Unbeknownst to the audience, the props we use on stage sometimes have a life all their own! As Fancy Free Cloggers made final adjustments to our routine for the Hee Haw show at Smoky Mountain Encore, the stuffed toy pig carried by one of my teammates was deemed too small to be visually effective. Our team seamstress has a pattern and can make one for future shows (we plan on using this dance throughout the year), but she didn't have time to create a custom pig before the trip to Tennessee...
Dia de los competition clogging at Florida Clogging Festival 2018!
Dia de los workshop clogging at Florida Clogging Festival 2018!
Get out and clog! Cabin Fever Workshop 2018
Cooped up cloggers in Ohio are ready to dance! Approximately 162 of us came out for the Cabin Fever workshop at Baku Grotto Hall in Mansfield. There was even a clogger from Canada in attendance! Fancy Free Cloggers brought three dancers to this event, one sporting a "spectator" armband due to a recent knee injury.
Get out and clog! Cabin Fever Workshop 2018: THE PREQUEL
Nothing cures winter doldrums like a clogging workshop! It was my privilege to join approximately 161 delightful folks in Mansfield, Ohio last weekend to dance it out at Cabin Fever, hosted by the Buckeye Country Cloggers.
Every trip has its challenges. Same as last year, I drove the 140ish miles to Mansfield the night before Cabin Fever. The difficulty came in trying to eat dinner Friday.
Here's what this clogger is currently...(February edition)
Welcome to February! What are all the cloggers up to? I'll start!
Here's what THIS clogger is currently...
Reading
Talking Feet: Solo Southern Dance of the Appalachian, Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountain Regions by Mike Seeger, with style profiles and footlatures by Ruth Pershing. There is a documentary by the same name which I do not currently own, but I have found clips online. More to come about this book in a future blog post.
To cut, or not to cut a long song?
The national dance list/fun dance challenge has left me with a dilemma: do I cut long, repetitive songs to better fit into performances, or leave them as they are so my teammates and I can nail the routines at fun dances?
Clogging class cancelled? Say it ain't snow...
Time to review the snow day policy at your dance studio! Is class automatically cancelled with local school closings? Does your director post it on social media?
A few missed classes due to snow are inevitable in many parts of the country. When those snow days come, here are a few activities to keep you prepared for the next class or performance:When those snow days come, here are a few activities to keep you prepared for the next class or performance:
Year of the Dog, Year to Clog!
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!
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!