Blogging About Clogging

Clogging is a type of folk dance with roots in traditional European dancing, early African-American dance, and traditional Cherokee dance in which the dancer's footwear is used musically by striking the heel, the toe, or both in unison against a floor or each other to create audible percussive rhythms. It was not always called "clogging", being known variously as flat-footing, foot-stomping, buck dancing, clog dancing, jigging, or other local terms. What all these had in common was emphasizing the downbeat of the music by enthusiastic footwork. As for the shoes many old clogging shoes had no taps and some were made of leather and velvet, while the soles of the shoes were either wooden or hard leather.

Irish dance, popularized in 1994 by the world-famous show "Riverdance", is notable for its rapid leg movements, body and arms being kept largely stationary. Most competitive dances are solo dances, though many stepdancers also perform and compete using céilí dances. The solo stepdance is generally characterized by a controlled but not rigid upper body, straight arms, and quick, precise movements of the feet. The solo dances can either be in "soft shoe" or hard shoe".

Clogging is similar to tap dancing, but has a different style. Cloggers perform with an up-and-down body motion and tend to make the most sounds with their heels. Tap dancers stay light on their feet and tend to dance to the melodies of music, rather than to the beats. Cloggers often dance in groups, usually in a line formation, with each dancer doing the same steps at the same time. Tappers are generally solo dancers.

The above is a compilation of information I found online. I doubt that it is 100% accurate, however, because it says that Riverdance popularized Irish tap dancing, yet tappers are generally solo dancers. That seems a little contradictory to me.

In any case, I have long wanted to be able to tap dance/clog/whatever. It think that this video is what started it:



So yeah... amazing, is it not? And SO much fun!

And...


a lot of work.


Do any of you know anything about dancing? What *is* the difference between tap and clog? From my experience I would say that upper body movement or lack thereof is a difference, but I really don't know that much.

There you have it! A really random post with a favorite youtube video... can't get much better than that, right? ;)