Clog dancing

See main article: Welsh Clog Dancing

Clog dancing in Wales originates mostly from slate quarries and farmers also. Workers would attempt to out-perform each other during work breaks by performing more extravagant and striking "steps" and "tricks" to impress their co-workers. The slate that was produced in the quarries could be used as a platform to clog dance and slate is still used even today in "eisteddfod" competitions.^[4]

Welsh clog dancing is unique and is not a revival, as it is danced in the style of the unbroken tradition."^[5] Welsh clog dancing is stylistically distinct from English clog dancing with new steps and "tricks" constantly being invented as part of Eisteddfod competitions. For example, extinguishing a candle, toby stepping (propelling the feet forward alternatively in a squat position), straddle jumps, handkerchief jumps, stepping and jumping over brooms are performed. Welsh clog dancing, especially solo dancing has evolved to become much more dynamic than English clog dancing.^[6]

Clog dancing is an integral part of both the local and national eisteddfod tradition in Wales. Competitions since the 1960s have extended to dancing duets and trios which meant that groups could recreate on stage the true tradition where one dancer was trying to out-dance the other. Group clogging has also become an integral part of the eisteddfodau and dancing tradition.^[7] Competition can be energetic with the dancers leaping over brooms as seen in the National Eisteddfod Male Welsh Clog Dancing Competition. Notable dancing groups include Natgarw Dancers hailing from the Pontypridd area and Talog dancers from Camarthern. Both groups have enjoyed significant success in National Eisteddfod competitions. Nantgarw dancers have also had significant success in international competitions such as the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Wales, Lorient Folk Festival in France and Mallorca World Folk Festival in Spain.^[8][9]

Today, there are three predominant styles of English clog dancing.^[10]

• Northumberland and Durham style: bears a resemblance to Irish dancing. It is characterised by neat and precise body movements with almost no upper-body movement. Dancers wear flat clogs with heel beat steps forming a large part of the repertoire.^[11]
• Lancashire style: very distinct from Northumbrian clogging and more flamboyant in style. Dancers' heels are kept well off the ground; in tournaments heel steps lead to disqualification. Danced in 'Dandy' clogs with the extra eyelets, crimping and pointy toes.
• Lakeland style or Westmorland Reel: typically danced as a reel with eight bars of stepping followed by a reel of three.

   

English clog dancing began in 18th century England during the Industrial Revolution.^[12][13] It is thought to have developed in the Lancashire cotton mills where wooden-soled clogs were preferred to leather soles because the floors were kept wet to help keep the humidity high, important in cotton spinning.^[14] At their breaks and lunches, they would have competitions, where they were judged on the best rhythm patterns. Workers, wearing their working clogs would perform in the street, in pubs, and during social occasions. For example, in Lancashire, wooden-soled clogs were worn in the mills, and on Dartmoor, hard-soled leather shoes or boots would have been worn for farming. By the late 1800s they clog danced^[15] on proper stages at competitions. In these competitions, the judges would watch the routine and judge it according to footwork, precision, and technique. Clog dancers were a common sight at music halls throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century. One such group was The Eight Lancashire Lads which included a young Charlie Chaplin as one of its members.^[16] Dan Leno became the world champion clog dancer in the 1880s, although records show that competitive clog dancing was a frequent occurrence throughout the 19th century.^[12]

Cecil Sharp frequently encountered step dancing, clog dancing and North West morris dancing (a type of morris often performed in clogs, but not the same as clog dancing) in his search for folk dances in England, but it was Maud Karpeles who was more effective in documenting some of these dances.^[17] She encountered groups of North West morris dancers in the North-West of England. Her book The Lancashire Morris Dance was published in 1930.^[18] It contained arrangements of the common Morris tunes: Rush cart lads, The girl I left behind me, Corn rigs, Sawney was tall – Radstock jig, Balquhidder lasses, Shepton hornpipe, Nancy Dawson and Cross Morris.^[19] In 1911 John Graham had published Lancashire and Cheshire Morris Dances from the same area. In the United States, English clog steps were combined with African rhythms to form "buck and wing dancing", and that evolved into Tap dance.^[a] Nowadays, clogs, tap shoes, and hard-soled shoes are all worn depending on the style of dance. Dances and steps are most notably found in the North East, the Lake District, and Lancashire. As well as being danced in social settings, there are also some competitions, which has helped define some of the styles.Competition style dancing is often focused on very precise footwork with very little upper-body movement.

Clog dancers today wear a mixture of costumes inspired by the Victorian and Edwardian clothing of the northern workers. In Lancashire and Northumbria some female clog dancers have specially made costumes, often with a waistcoat or bodice which is worn with a shawl, a long skirt, and an apron typically embroidered with floral patterns. Dancers also wear contemporary clothing and fashion. Pat Tracey (1959) described the everyday clothing worn by clog dancers performing in streets in the early 20th century;"For their performance the dancers usually wore their normal working clothes – brown fustian trousers, striped shirt with red muffler knotted round the neck, navy blue jacket and soft cap. They danced in their everyday clogs though these were usually somewhat lighter in weight than those worn by the majority of weavers...the street dancers normally belonged to a set of rather dandified working youths and the lighter clog was part of their accepted dress."^[21] Some dancers now wear mill workers working clothing or Sunday best, whilst others wear more modern outfits. On Dartmoor, in East Anglia and in the Romany/Gypsy and Traveller community, everyday clothing is worn.

Clog dancing still occurs in some festivals in North East England where it is typically danced to the traditional music of Northumbria. Dancing traditions still exist in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Cumbria and Derbyshire and other parts of England. Clog dance competitions currently held in England include the Lancashire and Cheshire Clog Dancing Contests (focussing on Lancashire style) held every September as part of the Fylde Folk Festival in Fleetwood, and the Northern Counties Clog Dancing Championships (focussing on Durham and Northumberland style clog dancing) held every year in Tyne and Wear.

Traditional dancing in the Netherlands is often called "Folkloristisch", sometimes "Boerendansen" ("farmer-dancing") or "Klompendansen" (clog dancing).^[22] Wooden shoes are worn as an essential part of the traditional costume for Dutch clogging, or Klompendanskunst. Clogs for dancing are made lighter than the traditional 700-year-old design. The soles are made from ash wood, and the top part is cut lower by the ankle. Dancers create a rhythm by tapping the toes and heels on a wooden floor.^[23]

In the United States, team clogging originated from square dance teams in Asheville, North Carolina's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival (1928), organised by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in the Appalachian region.^{[citation needed]}

American clogging is associated with the predecessor to bluegrass—"old-time" music, which is based on fiddle tunes from the British Isles. Clogging developed from aspects of English, Welsh, German, and Cherokee step dances, as well as African rhythms and movement. It was from clogging that tap dance eventually evolved.

Solo dancing (outside the context of the big circle dance) is known in various places as buck dance, flatfooting, hoedown, jigging, sure-footing, and stepping. The names vary in meaning, and dancers do not always agree on their use.

Buck dancing was the earliest combination of the basic shuffle and tap steps performed to syncopated rhythms in which accents are placed not on the straight beat, as with the jigs, clogs, and other dances of European origin, but on the downbeat or offbeat, a style derived primarily from the rhythms of African tribal music.^[24]

Traditional Appalachian clogging is characterised by loose, often bent knees and a "drag-slide" motion of the foot across the floor, and is usually performed to old-time music.

Clog dancers included Charlie Chaplin and Jack Wilson and Joe Keppel of Wilson, Keppel and Betty.

The ballet La fille mal gardée contains a well-known clog dance.

• Step dance

• Brady, Chris (2007), English Clogging in Lancashire in the 1800/1900s, Wigan Pier Experience Museum, retrieved 9 January 2016
• Britton, Eirlys (11 July 2011), dances, retrieved 9 January 2016
• Dobson, B. A. (1895), Humidity in Cotton Spinning, Bolton: G S Heaton, retrieved 9 January 2016. URL is text, facsimile at https://archive.org/stream/humidityincotton00dobs#page/n3/mode/2up
• English Folk Dance and Song Society (20 June 2014), Clog Dance, efdss, retrieved 9 January 2016
• Fisher, Alex (2003), Clog Dance – a brief history, ClogdanceUK!, retrieved 9 January 2016
• Karpeles, Maud (1930), The Lancashire Morris dance: containing a description of the Royton Morris dance, London: Novello for English Folk Dance Society also published in New York by H. W. Gray. "(accompanied by: tunes as pianoforte arrangements by Arnold Foster. Rush cart lads – The girl I left behind me – Corn rigs, or, Sawney was tall – Radstock jig – Balquhidder lasses – Shepton hornpipe – Nancy Dawson, or, Cross Morris)"
• Wallis, Lucy (11 December 2010), "Is clog dancing making a comeback?", BBC News, retrieved 9 January 2016

• Spalding, Susan Eike & Woodside, Jane Harris, eds. (1995). Communities in Motion: dance, community, and tradition in America's Southeast and beyond. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-31329-428-0.

• Clogaire Portal
• Clogdancing.com – A website for clog dancers
• Talking Feet Archived 23 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine Mike Seeger 90 minutes of other Appalachian Solo dance traditions