The whole purpose of www.ClogOn.com is to “keep clogging strong!” The owner and primary operator, Nate Moller, has been involved in internet marketing, search engine optimization, and business consulting for quite a few years and is always reading articles and blogs from professionals everywhere.

One idea that he found from ShoeMoney was “Free T-Shirt Friday“. The intent of this promotion is to help business (or studios) market themselves online.

Nate has decided to implement this strategy with the clogging community. Here’s what you need to do:

1) Send www.ClogOn.com your team t-shirt:

www.ClogOn.com
c/o Nate Moller
2952 E Somerset Vlg Way
Spanish Fork, UT 84660

2) Nate will take a picture wearing your teams t-shirt. He will also include a blog post at http://clogon.blogspot.com that promotes your team and also a link/picture on the home page of www.ClogOn.com.

3) We will have a vote on the “Best Team T-Shirt”. The winning team will be awarded a 10% Coupon to use on all ClogOn Merchadise*

We look forward to helping all cloggers and teams “keep clogging strong” in 2008.

*coupon can be redeemed one time and cannot be combined with other offers.

Thanks to Blake for his great comment about the Southern Belles – a big winner at the CCA Championships in 2008. Here they are in a more contemporary performance, definitely moving their clogging feet harder and faster:

If you are interested in quantity discounts on clogging shoes, steven’s stomper buck taps, or other clogging products, visit www.ClogOn.com today or send us an email at info@clogon.com.

Our last post featured contemporary cloggers doing their thing to up beat, hip hop music. Many cloggers prefer the contemporary styles: it blends different dance forms together to create something unique and new, it has a tendency to appeal to a wider audience, and it’s a great adrenaline rush.

However, there are still strong debates about contemporary clogging. Many cloggers just don’t think it’s the real deal. I found this really cool video of traditional clogging at it’s best. They don’t seem to be using clogging shoes, the music is bluegrass, and it really represents the roots of clogging.

What do you all think?

I’ve recently been talking to some fellow cloggers via the ClogOn Community in Facebook. The question came up, “What’s All That doing these days?” Does anyone know?

Here’s some cool footage to remind us of how they can move their clogging shoes all over the stage:

Vanessa W. from Florida is definitely committed to “keep clogging strong!” She’s been involved in clogging for about 10 years and loves what she does.

Unfortunately, a few months ago, her child’s clogging team had an experience that would shock all fellow cloggers. Here’s what she told www.ClogOn.com:

“Over the past year our clogging team did many fundraisers and special shows to raise money to perform… All the kids were so excited and looking forward to the trip as a team.

“Our director told us we would be the only clogging group at this event and we would represent the U.S.A. As a team, we earned well over $3000.00 which would be distributed between each team member to help with the expenses. However, when it came time to divide the money up, there wasn’t any. This was two days before we were supposed to leave. No one really knew what to say.

“We arrived…only to learn that we were never invited to the event and didn’t even get to dance. A lot of our dancers could not afford to take this trip and used this time in place of family vacations. When we arrived home and our director was confronted about the missing money he said, ‘This is my clogging group and I will do whatever I want with the money.’

“He finally admitted to spending the money on some personal issues that he had. Everyone was devastated and felt very used. Our little ones were very disappointed they didn’t receive any of the money that they worked so hard for.

“In order to “keep clogging strong!”, I started a group of my own to give all of us a place to dance. I am quickly learning how expensive it can be to start from scratch and keep things going, (music, shoes, uniforms, building, etc….) I’m sure all of you know what I am talking about…Even though we have fallen on hard times and have to start from scratch we are a determined team to KEEP CLOGGING STRONG!!!”

The goal at www.ClogOn.com is to help cloggers “keep clogging strong!” Stories like this inspire us to reach out and help a fellow clogger.

We have set a goal to help raise $1,500 for Vanessa’s new studio. Our plan is to contribute to the fund to help supply her with clogging shoes and products.

We need your help too. Any donation to the Vanessa Clogging Team Fund will help.

The money will be used exclusively for Vanessa’s team and will be tax deductible.

A check will be given to Vanessa to help her team “keep clogging strong!”

Thanks for your help!

Theresa Avery, a good Facebook friend of mine and fellow clogger, posed a good question that I’d be interested to hear response from. Her question was: “What do you love about clogging?”

Here was my reply:

I’ve been clogging for over 23 years. I would have to say there are two main things I love about clogging:

1) Performance time. It’s so fun to get up on the stage in front of a few people or thousands and move your clogging shoes to the beat of an upbeat song. Granted, it’s best when you have a responsive crowd that gets in to things but even a “dead crowd” can be fun if you really liven them up with clear sounds and fancy footwork.

2) The friendships you make by traveling around, going to competitions or workshops and just hanging out with fellow cloggers. Unfortunately I don’t get to do this as much currently as I did when I was younger, but the memories are still there and I hope to get back in to things more and more.

So, what do you all think?

My clogging shoes have taken me all over the world! I started clogging when I was six years old, primarily because I had so much energy and my mother was trying to find whatever resource she could to “calm me down!”

Here are some of the places, state side and foreign, that I’ve “clogged on!”

United States

• Burley, Idaho (this is where I learned to stomp my feet!)
• Salt Lake City, Utah (and everywhere else in Utah)
• 2002 Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics
• Disneyland – Anaheim, California
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Dollywood – Pigeon Forge, TN
• Silver Dollar City – Branson, Missouri
• New York City – National Talent Competition
• Louisville, Kentucky
• Lexington, Kentucky
• Hurricane, West Virginia
• Stone Mountain, Georgia
• Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (at my own wedding reception!)
• Door County, Wisconsin

More to come (including across the big ocean)! Where has clogging taken you?