Registration for the Dollywood Clogging Classic includes admission into the park for both Saturday and Sunday at a very reasonable price. Since Saturday competition was devoted to Amateur categories, Fancy Free Cloggers had a full day to roam the park!
One caveat: Laying out your tickets and then forgetting to grab them on the way out the door gets you a longer scenic drive. Ask Dustin about that, ha-ha!
The Dollywood Clogging Classic competition has a major advantage over many events because there is so much to do in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! My carload also found plenty to do along the way.
The Mighty Cruze departed after Molly attended a meeting for her impending high school graduation. Seriously, Molly? Get your priorities straight! DOLLY is waiting.
I arrived at Clogging Craziness Workshop on April 14 with a bad attitude. My mind was filled with (non-clogging related) worry, and I was exhausted. Despite paying in advance, I almost stayed home.
BUT... my teammate was teaching a class, I want to support clogging events in my area, and I figured a day of dance might do me good.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
Welcome to February! What are all the cloggers up to? I'll start!
Here's what THIS clogger is currently...
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.
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?
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:
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.
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
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!
