Dancers tap their feet together at workshop catered to cloggers By Natalie Drozda / Daily Nebraskan Pershing Center was all but dark and quiet Saturday night. The night’s air was filled with the infectious tapping and glowing sequins of the Capitol City Cloggers for the 12th annual “Clog Your Socks Off” event held in Lincoln in November. Over the weekend, the Capitol City Cloggers hosted workshops for modern-day cloggers from different parts of Nebraska. Though Saturday night’s event was open to the public, the crowd of about 300 was mostly family and friends of the participants. “It is a rush to dance for people who have not seen us before,” said Emily Carter, 18, a freshman pre-nursing student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Today’s cloggers don’t wear wooden shoes. The dancers tap with a combination of hip-hop arm movements and precise steps. They wear dance shoes with extra-loud steel taps. The result is boy-band like arm movements with steps like those of Irish folk dancing. Cloggers tap to pop music, classic country, techno and everything in between. Carter, an 11-year veteran with the Capitol City Cloggers, said she and the other girls on her team like the camaraderie they share with one another. “We don’t see that on the other teams,” said Kelli Mihulka, 19, a sophomore pre-radiology technician major who dances with Carter. Joel Harrison, a nationally recognized instructor from Lincoln, said he was happy with the turnout of dancers. “This workshop is up 50 dancers from last year,” Harrison said. Melissa Burmood of Waverly was there to see her 16-year-old daughter, Tawny. “I am a mother that goes to everything. I do a lot with her in clogging,” Burmood said. Tawny Burmood, who has clogged for nine years, is a dancer on the team Out of Control. Tawny’s mother said Tawny wanted to be a clogger after seeing the Capitol City Cloggers in the Star City Parade. The <strong>Double</strong> <strong>Toe</strong> <strong>Times</strong> <strong>Jan</strong>uary, <strong>2005</strong> Page 12 The Capitol City Cloggers is composed of four competition teams and 10 exhibition teams. The group Whiplash opened the show with Whitney Houston’s, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Once the team left the stage, the crowd was roaring for more. Not all of the dancers at the performance were young adults. Participants included dancers age three and up. Shara Madison, 61, of Grand Island, is in a group called the Classy Classics. She said the three women in the group share a bond of sisterhood. Madison said she clogs for the exercise. “I’d rather clog than have my arteries do it,” Madison said. Photos: Top: Danielle Schreiber, a five-year-old Eagle native, waits to perform in the solo competition of the “Clog Your Socks Off” workshop, which was held at Pershing Center on Friday night and all day Saturday. Photo by DN Bottom: Members of Whiplash perform for the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Junior Olympic Games. Photo by Trevor DeWitt, www.clogdancing.com
Page13 <strong>Jan</strong>uary, <strong>2005</strong> The <strong>Double</strong> <strong>Toe</strong> <strong>Times</strong>