History of Clogging
Clogging is an American folk dance with roots buried deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains that run through the Eastern states of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.
In the mid 1700's, large numbers of Scottish, English, Irish and German immigrants settled in the Appalachians, bringing with them their traditional folk dances. Many clogging steps are reminiscent of Scottish highland dancing or Irish step dancing. While it has strong ties to the step dances brought to the region by white settlers, clogging is also influenced by the traditional dance of Native Americans, and the traditional solo dances of African Americans.
Clogging of old was done impromptu to foot-tapping bluegrass music that also has its roots in the Appalachians. As clogging moved out of the mountains to the flatlands, special taps were added to shoes to give the dance its distinctive sound.
The name ‘clogging’ is a misnomer, since it is not performed in clogs, although some of the original step dances from Europe were. Nevertheless, the name persists, although in Appalachia, this form of percussive dance is often only known as buck dancing or flatfooting or just "dancing".
In the United States, clogging takes two major forms: traditional Appalachian flatfoot dance and precision (or modern) clogging. Precision (or modern) clogging is the form of clogging danced most often in Australia. It was developed around World War II, and is danced to a wide variety of music including rock and country & western. Precision cloggers wear shoes with jingle taps. The emphasis of precision clogging is on everyone clogging the same step at the same time.
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