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Music to get your feet tapping. Why not get up and do some clogging. Great exercise and teaches rhythm and foot coordination.
Originating in Lancashire around the end of the 18th century, clog dancing was a natural activity for the people who went to work in the textile mills of the industrial revolution.
Clogs were a warm, dry and cheap item of foot-ware and the metal rims made a sharp tapping sound on the flagstones. The weavers would rattle their feet to keep warm and tap out rhythms
in time with the machinery to keep their spirits up through the long hours at work.
These simple steps were put together to make dances and by the 1850's every village had their champion clog dancer, much in demand at weddings, barn dances, harvest homes etc.
The dances soon spread and developed regional styles, emigrants even took them to the Appalachian mountains of America.
The "Corner Boys" of Lancashire met on street corners and learned to dance on flagstones with iron-shod clogs creating showers of sparks as a finale. Often
two dancers would be accompanied by a boy playing the kazoo and would receive wild applause and collect pennies in an upturned hat.
Clog dancing reached its height in popularity in Lancashire between the 1870's and 1890's but during the 20th century picture houses and variety shows offered people alternative entertainment. Fortunately there was a revival in interest in the 1950's enabling the old dancers to pass on their skills to future generations.
Although wearing clogs is thought of as a feature northern life,
clogs were worn in the south of England in the 19th and 20th
centuries. |
What Tradamis offers
Percussive dance workshop, teaching the basic
skills of rhythmic, percussive dance without the need for specialist
footwear (hard soled outdoor shoes required – not
trainers)
Demonstration/presentation explaining history &
origins and regional characteristics
Investigate with pupils different ways of
creating percussive rhythms eg clapping stamping feet work with the
percussive rhythms to create an accompaniment for dancing. To
appreciate the relationship between working environments and
traditional dances
Devise simple movements and steps using the
creative rhythms
Create and rehearse percussive movement sequences
Plenary session – consider ways of developing the
movements to create unique styles and dances
Skills
Watching & listening - visual & aural skills
observation & evaluation
Rhythm
Appreciation
Movement skills
Team work
Confidence building
Individuality
Dance
styles/specific backgrounds
Yorkshire Mill dance
Lancashire steps
Welsh Broom steps
Canal steps
Solo stepping/competition dances
Music hall
Northwest Clog Morris
Tap
Rhythms
March
Waltz
Hornpipe |
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Where can you get
clogs?
Trefor Owen
07712
822453
www.shoemakers.org.uk
Phil Howard 0161
494 0224
www.nw-clogs.co.uk
jp.howard045@ntlworld.com
For second hand clogs try
e-bay. Look for clogs which are for dancing, also check
the sizes as the sizing system for clogs isn't the same as for
shoes. |
Trefor Owen Clogmaker
Today, clogs which we for dancing have wooden soles
without rubbers or irons so that they don't mark or damage floors |
English clogs have wooden soles, with leather uppers |
