Clogging

The History of Clog Dancing

Clogging has very early roots in Cherokee Native American dancing and Irish dance.

 During the Industrial Revolution, workers of North English cotton mills wore thick, wooden-soled shoes in order to prevent slipping on floors, which were sprayed with water to keep dust down. Workers would dance in time to the rhythmic noises of machinery.

Slavery also influenced clogging- African-Americans, Africans, and their dance gave clogging an informal, bent-knee characteristic. Clogging uses many African beats.

 Immigrants from Europe, coming to the Appalachian region of the Southern United States, brought with them clogging to violin and fiddle music.

 In the 1920s and 1930s, tap was developed from clogging- note that clogging came first and has a distinctively different style than tap and tap shoes.

 Clogging has since become a competition dance with many clogging groups appearing on national television shows such as “America’s Got Talent” and “America’s Next Best Dance Crew.”

 Clogging can be danced to all styles of music and is wonderful exercise, burning about 400 calories or more every hour.