Clogging Classes in Charlotte
scotca...@delphi.com
What: Beginners & Intermediate Clogging classes & Techniques of
Precision Team dancing
Taught by: Allen Cooke, director of former NC champion Skyline
Cloggers of Charlotte.
When: Beginners- starting Wednesday May 3- 7:00-8:00 pm, for 8
weeks
Intermediates- starting Wednesday May 3-
8:00-9:00pm for 8 weeks
Choreography workshop- starting Tuesday May 2-
7-9pm for 8 weeks
(In the Chorography wkshop you'll learn a routine
not a line dance)
Place: Latta Recreation Center (in airconditioned comfort)
Cost: Beginners and Intermediate classes are $15.00 for 8
weeks
Chorograohy class is $16.00 for 8 weeks.
More info: Allen Cooke (704) 366- 3334
Standard disclaimer: I am in no way connected with nor do I
receive any financial renumeration from the above, I simply
wish to help further the pursuit and enjoyment of traditional
dance.
Craig Whitehead
email: scotca...@delphi.com
Bill Richardson
Thanks for the info, Craig, but it sounds like Precision White Shoes
Clogging to me. White shoes and pants, hands on the belt buckles, red
gingham shirts, short skirts with krimlins, nylon stockings. The clogging
equivalent of Western Square Dancing. Definitely debatable as to its
traditionality.
Give me the traditional revivalists cloggers any day. Blue jeans, loose
dresses that fly up when they twirl and kick, lots of energy and sweating,
sexy women, handsome men with hair and beards, splashes of color. Groups
like the Green Grass Cloggers, the Coal Creek Cloggers, and the Hoorah
Cloggers.
The most traditional clogging groups I've seen came from the Patrick/Henry
region in Virginia. (The area bordered by the Blue Ridge Parkway and
North Carolina). Their figures are actually closer to what the Precision
groups do (very simple slow-moving figures with large groups on stage),
but their dress was much less harsh.
Traditional clogging in SW virginia is suffering from the popularity of
precision clogging. Kids are learning the precision stuff instead of
learning to flatfoot from their family and friends.
There are dances along the blue ridge parkway, near galax, where you can
see in incredible variety of homegrown clogging and flatfoot styles.
I learned to clog at workshops here in Blacksburg, the basic 1-2-3-shuffle
step. It was really a mind-blower to go to these dances and watch the
traditional cloggers flatfooting and doing unbalanced steps.
Bill Richardson
blacksburg virginia
Bill Blevins
that word) had to learn from somebody! I think Mr Richardson's point
was that the tradition has at least been kept whole, that is clogging
to traditional music by us "r"s.
I too have heard and watched "click" cloggers dance to R&R and I
personally found it very entertaining. You are correct that the contra
kudzu is strangling traditional clogging and round dance, but at
least some communities still favor Southern OT music.
B Blevins
Eddie A. Owens
Bill,
In more ways than you obviously realize, these Clicking-clogger
types are more traditional than us revivalists. I should know;
I'm one of the latter and have done some research into this. PBS
once did a special on Bascomb Lamar Lumford (sp?) who did a lot to
bring clogging from the hills when it was still a solo dance form.
Through his efforts to promote and preserve this and other mountain
traditions, he helped clogging gain a foothold in the popular culture
by making it a performance-style dance.
At first it was just a group of people doing individual clogging steps
to Western squares and Appalachian circles (circa, late '20s early '30s).
Then these groups began adding precision to their steps, meaning that
they did the same steps at the same time. Audiences loved it. You should
check out some of the old Grand-Ole Opry TV shows for examples of this.
Wonderful stuff!
To make a long story short, parents taught their children who taught
their peers, and along the way, they forgot some of the unique elements
that we revivalists consider traditional. One of those, IMHO, was that
clogging is intricately linked to the old-time music that drove it. Now
you find groups who very rarely dance to live music, much less old-time
(in fact, I've heard them perform to rock 'n roll).
But still, some of the most talented cloggers I've ever seen are in these
groups. And they continue to attract young people, which is important if
you want to pass along a tradition. I don't see this happening in the
revivalist movement. I also don't think that precision clogging is stealing
the show from the so-called traditional Green-Grass hippified style of clogging
I love. At least in this area, it has been the New England Contra dance
that killed the popularity of clogging. In the end, I think the revivalist
movement that started in the early '70s will die when you and I hang up our
shoes. Then perhaps a new crop of youngsters will visit us when we're old
and gray and only in the way, and maybe, a new revival will begin.
Eddie Owens
The Cane Creek Cloggers
Brad Leftwich
> In more ways than you obviously realize, these Clicking-clogger
>types are more traditional than us revivalists.
Before this goes too far, let me interject that I think it's a mistake
to label one of these movements a "revival" and the other "traditional."
When it comes right down to it, both of these movements were revivals in
the strict folkloric sense of the word. But when you get outside of
academic folklore circles (sometimes even within), the word "revival"
loses its scientific rigor and tend to be used very loosely, in a highly
charged, evaluative manner that's more akin to name-calling
("revivalist!") than to social science. Since most of us aren't
folklorists and don't know what the hell we're talking about anyway, I
think we'd be better off if we banished the word from the vocabulary.
In my opinion, tradition is usually both a matter of degree and of kind,
and if you're well-acquainted with a particular tradition, your ears and
eyes will tell you how traditional a performance is. No need to go into
full-fledged stereotyping, pigeonholing, throwing the baby out with the
bath, etc. that's implied in calling someone a revivalist. That has a
way of making complex issues look black and white.
--Brad Leftwich
left...@indiana.edu
Julie Mangin
Brad Leftwich <left...@indiana.edu> wrote:
>owe...@aur.alcatel.com (Eddie A. Owens) wrote:
>> In more ways than you obviously realize, these Clicking-clogger
>>types are more traditional than us revivalists.
>
>Before this goes too far, let me interject that I think it's a mistake
>to label one of these movements a "revival" and the other "traditional."
[Other excellent remarks by Brad deleted]
Right on, Brad. I try to be aware of what's going on in *both* clogging
worlds, the so-called revivalist one, and the modern one.
There is a trend among some modern clogging groups to begin to teach
traditional buckdancing, and include more traditional figures in their
dancing. Rather than pigeon-hole these folks because they also do line
dances and such, I think we should be sharing as much information as we
can with them. I think if we are going to use "revive" as our metaphor
of choice, let's just say I believe that if we want to save the patient,
it doesn't matter how we do it, as long as it stays alive.
Julie Mangin
Publisher & Editor
The Daily Clog
Bill Richardson
dance to any live music. Thanks for that correction, Julie.
Perhaps "old-time" would be a good descriptor for the groups we are
referring to as "revivalist", since they are distinguished by the fact
that they dance to live old-time music.
The most "traditional" form of clogging routine I've seen was some groups
from Patrick/Henry counties in Virginia. To me, the most traditional
form for a performance clogging routine would be live music (bluegrass or
old-time); a large group of dancers; simple, slow-moving figures; and
free-style steps throughout the entire routine. The groups that perform
at Galax sometimes are like this- at least they always have an old-time
band for them to dance to.
For the last two years. some of us from Blacksburg (The Hoorah Cloggers
and an old-time band) when to an event called the "Clogging College" down
in Norton, Virginia. It was quite an eye-opener and experience for all
parties involved. For us, it was wild to see all the flashy modern
outfits of the groups, their routines, and the choices of music they were
dancing to. There was lots of stuff that combined line-dance moves with
clogging, for instance. For them, it was wild to see a clogging group
dancing to live fiddle music, to get the chance to do it themselves, and
to clog through a square dance.
Bill Richardson
blacksburg virginia
Gordon Banks
>
>In my opinion, tradition is usually both a matter of degree and of kind,
>and if you're well-acquainted with a particular tradition, your ears and
>eyes will tell you how traditional a performance is. No need to go into
>full-fledged stereotyping, pigeonholing, throwing the baby out with the
>bath, etc. that's implied in calling someone a revivalist. That has a
>way of making complex issues look black and white.
>
I just got through reading a book by Neil Rosenberg on "Transforming
Tradition." Many of the essays (by folklorists) make the point that
it is artificial to try to separate traditionalists from revivalists since
revivals have been going on for hundreds of years and revivalist influence
permeates the traditional arts and music. I especially liked the article
on Northumbrian piping. The revivals were traced back to 1800. There is
no aspect of piping in Northumbria that can be separated from revivalist
influence. Even the coal miners and shepards who played the pipes were
influeced by urban gentlemen pipers of the past century. I suspect this
also occurs in our music. Wasn't Minstrelsy a revival? Didn't it
greatly influence OT music? I wonder what Joe Wilson would say.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks N3JXP |"Reality must take precedence over public relations,
g...@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu | for nature cannot be fooled." --Richard Feynman
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Tyler
>
>>In my opinion, tradition is usually both a matter of degree and of kind,
>>and if you're well-acquainted with a particular tradition, your ears and
>>eyes will tell you how traditional a performance is. No need to go into
>>full-fledged stereotyping, pigeonholing, throwing the baby out with the
>>bath, etc. that's implied in calling someone a revivalist. That has a
>>way of making complex issues look black and white.
>>
>
>I just got through reading a book by Neil Rosenberg on "Transforming
>Tradition." Many of the essays (by folklorists) make the point that
>it is artificial to try to separate traditionalists from revivalists since
>revivals have been going on for hundreds of years and revivalist influence
>permeates the traditional arts and music. I especially liked the article
>on Northumbrian piping. The revivals were traced back to 1800. There is
>no aspect of piping in Northumbria that can be separated from revivalist
>influence. Even the coal miners and shepards who played the pipes were
>influeced by urban gentlemen pipers of the past century. I suspect this
>also occurs in our music. Wasn't Minstrelsy a revival? Didn't it
>greatly influence OT music? I wonder what Joe Wilson would say.
Most of the folklorists I know (been there, done that) have no trouble
considering revivals and revivalists as part of tradition. Since at the least
the early '70s, folklore (the discipline) began to pay very close attention to
the context in which folklore (the stuff) was performed. For too many decades,
folklorists had only looked at tunes, songs, etc. (the stuff) abstracted from
any kind of real life experience.
However, it's not always artificial to separate "traditionalists" from
"revivalists." They most often operate in different kinds of contexts. But as
with anykind of descriptive shorthand, the labels should not be construed as
value judgments or confining stylistic boxes. The real world of old time music
in the 1990s is full of all sorts on interplay between revivalists and
traditionalists of every stripe and hue. All of this is authentic folklore
(the stuff in context), and makes doing folklore (picking through the all the
threads and trying to find where they lead) a most interesting profession.
A real life, non-academic example: Brad Leftwich and I were both doing fiddle
workshops at the California Traditional Music Society New Years camp last
winter. I described what I would do as representing Indiana fiddling, since I
was going to teach tunes learned from Lotus Dickey, Francis Geels, and other
true blue Hoosiers. Brad joked that he was from Indiana. And yes, he is
representative of old time fiddling as done in a vital music culture in Indiana
today. But Brad's workshops were on Ozark fiddling and the Round Peak sound as
well. He also learned directly from the older traditionalists.
The point is that not that we were competing over who is more authentically
Indiana. (Hell, I'd rather hear Brad play than listen to myself anyday.)
Calling something Indiana fiddling or Ozark fiddling or Round Peak may hint at
stylistic elements or geographical connections, but it does little to capture
the real life contexts in which old time music thrives. Actually Lotus Dickey
tunes and Tom Fuller tunes have done quite well in several contexts, some more
traditional, some more directly tied to a revival.
Ain't old time music grand.
Paul Tyler
Chicago
Bill Richardson
Institute in Ferrum Virginia has hired me several times to call dances or
do stage announcing at events he sponsors at the BRI. The Blue Ridge
Folklife Festival held every October is famous in these parts for the
quality of its traditional folk arts and crafts on display. Everything
from Jannette Carter to coon-dog's racing/swimming across a pond after a
fake racoon. Anyway when I ask him why he doesn't get younger musicians
like myself and others who play the music perfectly well, his response is
always along the lines of "as long as the old guys are out there". In
other words, as long as there are people who actually learned the music or
the craft through their native culture and family, those are the ones he
wants at his events. I can't argue with that.
Bill Richardson
blacksburg virginia
Peter Feldmann
And then there's the story of Marc Savois, a native of Eunice, LA, who
sings, plays, and builds accordians used in Cajun music. He was invited to
many NEA and NCTA events as an authentic traditional performer.
He then made the mistake of getting married.
His wife was French, *not* Cajun. She's a singer and guitar player & has
written & published a multi-volume history of Acadian music. She now
accompanies Marc in his music gigs, but Marc no longer gets the same type
of festival jobs, since he's now been _polluted_ by non-traditional
influences. Talk to him for the whole story - folklore bureaucracy in
action....
_Peter
Peter Feldmann * IC Consultants
Santa Barbara, California
pfel...@bix.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Kleiser
Feldmann) wrote:
> And then there's the story of Marc Savois, a native of Eunice, LA, who
> sings, plays, and builds accordians used in Cajun music. He was invited to
> many NEA and NCTA events as an authentic traditional performer.
>
> He then made the mistake of getting married.
>
> His wife was French, *not* Cajun. She's a singer and guitar player & has
> written & published a multi-volume history of Acadian music. She now
> accompanies Marc in his music gigs, but Marc no longer gets the same type
> of festival jobs, since he's now been _polluted_ by non-traditional
> influences. Talk to him for the whole story - folklore bureaucracy in
> action....
And then there's the somewhat similar, though very different, story of
Marc Savoy (not Savois), a native of Eunice, La., who sings, plays, and
builds accordions (to use his spelling) used in Cajun music. He married
a beautiful woman from Virginia, USA. She's a singer and guitar player
and has written the book "Cajun Music, Volume 1" (distributed by
Bluebird Press, Inc., Eunice, La.). When I spoke to her in August last
year, volume 2 was not ready. (I've also heard that she can do a whole
lot of things with seven pieces of furniture.)
More serious:
If there are people or institutions who consider a female singer from
Virginia to be some kind of polution when performing with her Cajun
husband, well, to me it sounds like those people (institutions) could
do a nice job in/around Bosnia, in the ethnic rinsing business.
Sincerey,
Jon Kleiser
(C. Mock Frog)