Traditional Dance - Appalachian Clogging (Stepping)

A how-to-do-it tutorial by Rosie Davis

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Fancy Footwork

By mixing up shuffle steps and walking steps all of the rhythms in the music can be played on the feet. However to be able to do this, a way to dance Triplets will be needed, that is three taps over the time of one beat of the music, plus a way to change the stress of the beats from ON and OFF to OFF and ON.

Triplets

Care must be taken not to slip into Tap Dancing when fitting in triplets, for it is at this point that it becomes evident that the speed and syncopation that triplets make possible can if over used destroy the simplicity of the elaborated walking and stepping of the social / freestyle dance style and become something else.

Several triplets together give a galloping feel to the dance or the sound of a steam train. This last effect is great with some of the Old Timey tunes. tock-i-tay - tick-u-tee
- tock- i-tay - tick-u-tee

1
tock
step
R
i
shuf
L
tay
fle
L
&
tick step
L
u
shuf
R
tee
fle
R
2
tock
step
R
i
shuf
L
tay
fle
L
&
tick
step
L
u
shuf
R
tee
fle
R
3
tock

etc.
etc.
i
tay
&
tick
etc.
----- triplet---- ------ triplet---- ----- triplet--- ----- triplet----

Experiment with tick - tock, shuffle and walking steps throwing the odd triplet amongst the steps. My favourite train step in Tap Dancing is "Off to Buffalo" which makes the sound -

a-tick-u-tee-tock  &-tick-u-tee-tock   a-tick-u-tee-tock   a-tick-u-tee-tock -

the step relies on a "Lazy" shuffle to make "a - tick", and shuffle, step, to make the triplet
u-tee-tock.

A good train noise- tick-u-tee-tock  tick-u-tee-tock  tick-u-tee-tock  tick-u-tee-tock
can be made by sliding / chugging back on one foot and immediately doing a single on the other.

&
tick
slide
back
R
u
shuf
L
tee
fle
L
1
tock
step

L
&
tick
slide
back
L
u

R
tee
fle
R
2
tock
step
R
&
tick
slide
back
R
u
shuf
L
tee

fle
L
3
tock
step
L
&
tick
slide
back
L
u
shuf
R
tee
fle
R
4
tock
step
R
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