Post by upfromsumdirt on Jun 15, 2009 8:56:15 GMT -5
spent all last week up in the hills of radford, virginia - our last night there
we went to a hillbilly jamboree where fiddle bands and clog dancing ruled
supreme... the dance floor was packed with folks of all ages (and colors!)
jumpin up and down lookin very much like african ritual dancing - i was
highly taken in by the whole thing...
(ive just been informed that CLOGGING is the official state dances for
both kentucky AND north carolina...)
the appalachias were settled fundamentally by the irish (them riverdancing
folks!) and you can see how its translated itself to american hill country
with influences of native american tribal dancing...
from wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogging
Clogging is a type of folk dance with roots in traditional European dancing from the British Isles, early African-American dance, and traditional Cherokee dance[1] 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.[2] Clog is from a Gaelic word meaning "time." [3][3]
Clogging was social dance in the Appalachian Mountains as early as the 1700s.
As the clogging style has migrated over the years, many localities have made contributions by adding local steps and rhythms to the style. Welsh seamen appear to have adopted a dance very early on and may have been those who introduced it to the British Isles. As the dance migrated to England in the 1400s, the all wooden clog was replaced by a leather topped shoe with a one piece wooden bottom. By the 1500s a more convention leather shoe with separate wooden pieces on the heel and toe called "flats" became popular, from where the terms "heel and toe" and "flat footing" derive.
In later periods 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.Some were made of leather and velvet. The soles of the shoes were either wooden or hard leather.
we went to a hillbilly jamboree where fiddle bands and clog dancing ruled
supreme... the dance floor was packed with folks of all ages (and colors!)
jumpin up and down lookin very much like african ritual dancing - i was
highly taken in by the whole thing...
(ive just been informed that CLOGGING is the official state dances for
both kentucky AND north carolina...)
the appalachias were settled fundamentally by the irish (them riverdancing
folks!) and you can see how its translated itself to american hill country
with influences of native american tribal dancing...
from wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogging
Clogging is a type of folk dance with roots in traditional European dancing from the British Isles, early African-American dance, and traditional Cherokee dance[1] 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.[2] Clog is from a Gaelic word meaning "time." [3][3]
Clogging was social dance in the Appalachian Mountains as early as the 1700s.
As the clogging style has migrated over the years, many localities have made contributions by adding local steps and rhythms to the style. Welsh seamen appear to have adopted a dance very early on and may have been those who introduced it to the British Isles. As the dance migrated to England in the 1400s, the all wooden clog was replaced by a leather topped shoe with a one piece wooden bottom. By the 1500s a more convention leather shoe with separate wooden pieces on the heel and toe called "flats" became popular, from where the terms "heel and toe" and "flat footing" derive.
In later periods 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.Some were made of leather and velvet. The soles of the shoes were either wooden or hard leather.
