British Beginnings
In 1916 song and dance collectors Cecil Sharp and Maud Karples discovered that the mountainous Appalachian region of North America contained a unique residue of British traditional dances, songs and music.
Following colonization nearly 200 years earlier, this region's self-contained communities had become virtually cut off from outside influences and a predominantly British culture had flourished.
The dances they noted were an amalgam of traditional British regional dances and steps. Intermeshed into these were indigenous Indian and, seemingly, African dance movements. After watching a performance Sharp wrote of the wildness and break-neck speed of the dancers, saying that the air seemed literally to pulsate with the rhythm and the tramp of the dancers' feet as they whirled through the mazes of the dance.
Noisy 'cloggers'
Shoes shod with metal are more durable - and also a lot noisier. Appalachian dance steps featuring such footwear have been used as rythmic accompaniment to singers, particularly at times when 'un-Godly' musical instruments were banned.
In Britain the wooden-soled clogs shod with 'irons', worn by industrial and agricultural workers, have provided English step dancers with a similar medium.
There is a story that the Queen Mother, on being introduced to an American dance team, commented on their tap shoes being like English clogs. It's unlikely clogs were ever worn by Appalachian 'cloggers', but it seems the name stuck.
Julie James
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Over recent years many American 'cloggers' have visited Britain, so it is not surprising that this exuberant dance style has been taken up here, too. In the early 1980s an
English step clog dancer, Julie James, met with an American team dancing in Chesterfield.
Following a return visit to the States to learn some steps from the American team a group was formed in the Derbyshire town.
'Feet First' was the name of the visiting group and in respect this was the name chosen for the Chesterfield team dedicated to performing the Appalachian style dances.
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Home-Grown Adaptations
It was quickly acknowledged that the new team was not American. Instead of attempting to replicate the original dancers' routines the members began to reflect their own individual backgrounds in step clogging, Cotswold and North West Morris, Scottish and English country dances, ballet and jazz dance. The life and vibrancy of the Appalachian dance steps was thus choreographed into new, home-spun, displays.
This 'natural' development is not unique in itself. Some US teams have been performing so-called 'precision stepping' routines for a number of years.
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