Before there ever was an English Appalachian dance team called Feet First there was
one with this name based in the United States. In 1984 the American Feet First
came to Britain, from Pennsylvania, to tour and give performances of a dance style
that was very new to the British audiences.
Julie James
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The Olde Tyme music that Appalachian sides dance to is very lively and infectious
and when the American team performed in New Square in Chesterfield their music
caught the attention of an English Clog dancer named Julie James.
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Attracted by the music, Julie came to watch the dancing. She was able to recognise
the Appalachian dance steps and was particularly interested because Appalachian dance
has evolved in part from the English Clog steps Julie was so familiar with. As she
watched the Pensylvanian dancers perform she wondered if this group might like to see
what the original English Clog steps looked like.
As the leader of Pynot Clog English Clog dance team at the time, she started chatting
to the members of the USA Feet First side and eventually invited them to a practice
night. Four dancers from the American side duely arrived.
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After teaching English clog steps to the visitors from the States, Julie took the
American dancers to her house for a more one-to-one session. This allowed Julie
to learn some Appalachian steps from the Pennsylvanian Feet First.
As Julie remembers, "we swapped steps till 5 in the morning and, by this time,
I was hooked".
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A year later, in 1985, Julie and Alan James went to York, Pennsylvania to meet up with
the US Feet First team again. While there, they all went to a
"Chesters County Clog-in" of Appalachian dance at the
Brandywine Mountain Music Convention.
Julie used this opportunity to learn a lot more Appalachian steps and once
again stayed up till 5am swapping English Clog and Appalachian steps.
Back home Julie wanted to bring the new and exciting dance style into her English
Clog dance team practice nights so that more people could start to learn the steps.
The existing members of Pynot Clog were happy to continue with just English steps so
Julie decided to start a brand new team that was to concentrate solely on Appalachian.
The first dancers in the new team were Julie James, Alan James, Alan Athey, Rita Beard
and Christine.
Julie asked the American Feet First if her new side could
use their name and they were happy to agree. This is how the idea of Feet First in
the UK was born.
In the May of 1985 The organiser of Cleethorps folk festival asked Julie if she
would perform some Appalachian steps at the festival. Julie agreed as long as
the team had learnt some dances by the time the festival was to take place.
In this way Feet First received their first booking, although this was before the
team had actually formed.
Feet First was finally formed in September 1985
At first, Feet First did not have a band but when Judie Dunlop (then a singer with
Causey Edge) started to be interested in dancing with Feet First she asked the Causey
Edge musician Nigel Corbett if he would play for Feet First (seen below looking towards the camera).
The first dance that Julie created from the steps she had learnt was to be performed
to the lively tune "Turkey in the Straw" and was given the name Turkey Trot.
The second dance was Nocalypse and whilst many new dances have been written over the
years these two dances are still performed today.
Before Feet First actually formed Julie and Clare did perform some of the
new Appalachian steps at one or two venues.
One of the early performances was at Chesterfield's Walton Hospital and
this is where the pictures below were taken.
Julie remembers that the skirts were designed to fly up easily to show off the dancing.
Indeed her philosophy right from the start was that Feet First should dance with
"pizzazz" and above all be an entertainment. She wanted her side to "put on a show".
In line with this, fishnet tights and petty coats were incorporated into the costume.
At the time some levelled comments at her that "This is just show business" but,
as Julie is proud to relate, "This was the biggest compliment they could have given me;
that's exactly what we wanted it to be".
The initial dance costume only lasted a few performances.
"We decided we weren't American
so we changed it. We wanted something more classy" remembers Julie.
The new kit consisted of dresses that were either all green, all blue or all cerise
in colour with petticoats of a contracting colour. This was the kit being used when Feet First was formed in the September
of 1985.
The men initially wore brown checked shirts but eventually these were changed for costumes
that were a matching blue.
Other events where Feet First performed before the Cleethorps festival was Lancashire
Wallopers' Weekend of Step Clog Dance and also Wath on Derne festival.
When the Cleethorps festival came along Feet First held their first dance work shop.
As Julie remembers it, people "went mad for the new dance style" and it was so successful
that the team decided to hold an Appalachian dance workshop weekend in Chesterfield,
where Feet First was based.
At Whitby Folk Festival another workshop was held at the old Spa. This workshop had
over 300 people attending and this venue was not nearly big enough so instead of
standing amongst the people and demonstrating the steps Julie had to stand on a
stage and use a microphone. Julie says she can't remember this style of giving a
workshop being used before.
Feet First Worshop given by Clare
At its peak, Feet First work shops expanded into what was
known as the "Foot Loose" Festivals held in Highfields school, Matlock.
This was where many people got their first exposure to Appalachian dancing.
A problem with the second costume, where different people had different colour dresses,
was that depending on which dancers could be present at a performance, the side might
find its self performing with, for example, three green dresses and one that was pink
and, to Julie's mind, that "could just look wrong". For this reason, after two seasons in these colours,
Feet First decided they wanted something else.
The third team outfit, adopted in 1988, is the one still used today. The women
began to wear red dresses with white polka dots and the men adopted
white shirts and black trousers adding braces in the new team colour of red.
Bow ties for the men were added many years later by Leon who wanted to look smart
for an evening performance.
The women in the team liked it and wanted ties to become part of the normal men's kit.
Now, appart from on the hottest days, Feet First men usually wear some sort of tie.
Over the years the team has been fortunate enough to have a number of men in the
team reaching a maximum of eight in the early 1990s. This has allowed an extra
dimension to be added to the choreography.
The success of the team is in no small measure attributable to the driving music
of the band. The longest-standing member of the musicians is fiddle-player John
Fermer who has given his distinctive style to the team since 1988.
Julie James left her Feet First team in 1992 to move on to other dance interests.
Since then the choreography has been mainly carried forward by Meg Ridley whose design
of many interesting dances and attention to encouraging a lively and spectacular
performance from the team has greatly helped keep the spirit of Feet First in line
with the original "Show Biz" look.
New dances have been added every year and some have been designed by other members
of the team.
Since 1985 when Feet First formed, and when "Broken Ankles" also started, many new
Appalachian teams have come into existance many as a direct result from the workshops
lead by Feet First. Some sides have since folded but at the time of writing, in June 2011,
there were over
seventy Appalachian dance sides
active in the UK.
The team does have some team members surviving from the early years, the longest-standing
members of the team being Meg and Clare who still enjoy performing as much as they did
when they first joined.
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Clare Corbett
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Meg Ridley
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Feet First are always hoping younger dancers will want to join their ranks so that
the the team can continue to provide their distinctive show-biz pizzazz to audiences
in the future.
