Clogging,buck dancing, orflatfoot dancing[1] is a type offolk dance practiced in the United States, in which the dancer's footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythms, usually to thedownbeat with the heel keeping the rhythm. Clogging can be found at various Old-Time and Bluegrass Music festivals.
Clogging is the officialstate dance ofKentucky andNorth Carolina.
In the United States, team clogging originated from square dance teams inAsheville,North Carolina's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival (1928), organized byBascom Lamar Lunsford in theAppalachian region.[2]
The Soco Gap Dancers performed at the White House in 1939, which caused an uptick in the popularity of team clogging.[3]
American Clogging is associated with the predecessor tobluegrass—"old-time" music, which is based on English, and Irish fiddle tunes as well as African American banjo tunes. Clogging primarily developed from Irish step dancing calledSean-nós dance;[4] there were also English, Scottish, German, and Cherokee step dances, as well as African rhythms and movement influences too. It was from clogging thattap dance eventually evolved. Now, many clogging teams compete against other teams for prizes such as money and trophies.[5]
The term "buck", as inbuck dancing, is traceable to the West Indies and is derived from aTupi Indian word denoting a frame orhurdle for drying and smoking meat; the originalpo bockarau orbuccaneers were sailors who ate smoked meat and fish after the manner of the Indians.[6] Another source states that the wordbockorau can be traced to the "Angolan" word "buckra', and was used to refer to white people,[7] which is disputed.[8] Eventually the term came to describe Irish immigrant sailors whosejig dance was known as 'the buck'."[citation needed]
One source states that buck dancing was the earliest combination of the basic shuffle and tap steps performed to syncopated rhythms in which accents are placed not on the straight beat, as with the jigs, clogs, and other dances of European origin, but on the downbeat or offbeat, a style derived primarily from the rhythms of African tribal music.[9]
Yet another etymology of the word argues that it derives from the word "buck", used as a pejorative term for African American men in the 19th century.[10] Buck dancing was popularized in the United States byminstrel performers in the late 19th century. Many folk festivals and fairs utilize dancing clubs or teams to perform both Buck and regular clogging for entertainment.[11]
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