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?

What do cloggers think about promoting clogging via a new movie? Has anyone seen a clip of this movie yet? My question is this: do these people putting this “clogging movie” together know anything about clogging?

Here’s the article I found that talks about it. Pay attention to the bold areas: will this be enough to really promote clogging?

‘Cloggers’ creator hopes steps lead to stardom
By Borys Kit

Dec 13, 2006

Can an unknown actress-turned-writer dance her way to stardom?

That was the dream Julia Fowler harbored last week, standing on the roof of a parking structure on the edge of Beverly Hills with a view of the Hollywood sign.

As she prepared with a series of quick stretches for what would be an unorthodox pitch session, several casually dressed executives gathered in front of a makeshift black floor measuring 20 feet by 14 feet.

Fowler watched as one her three producers began her introductory spiel. Five years of struggling as an actress had led Fowler to this, a weeklong series of pitch meetings designed to win her — a la Sylvester Stallone and “Rocky,” Billy Bob Thornton and “Sling Blade,” Nia Vardalos and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” — the lead role in a movie that she had written.

“This’ll be memorable, if nothing else,” whispered one seen-it-all exec. (The company where this particular version of the pitch took place declined to be named.)

Fowler stepped forward onto the unconventional dance floor, and then she and a group of costumed dancers exploded into stomping and hopping. The floor of the structure vibrated as if an earthquake were hitting the city. First, the execs’ jaws dropped, and then they broke into smiles.

“Possum Trot Cloggers” is the name of the project for which Fowler hoped to drum up interest. A romantic comedy set in the world of competitive clogging, it has Howard Deutch attached to direct with “North Country” executive producer Helen Bartlett, “Flyboys” director Tony Bill and TV movie producer Diane Sokolow all on board to produce.

The project was under option to New Line Cinema, which, after deciding not to go forward with the project, let the producers seek a new home for it. The producers and director — who believed in their writer-star even before she aced a screen test at New Line — strategized with their agents at ICM on how best to sell a project about a world mostly unknown to those west of Highland Avenue. The result was a 30-minute pitch that included several dance numbers both traditional (set to bluegrass music) and contemporary (set to hip-hop).

The presentation rested mostly in the hands of Fowler, who hails from South Carolina, with clogging part of her background. (bold added for emphasis) After a stint in New York as an actress-dancer — she appeared in a Broadway production of “Annie Get Your Gun” — the performer moved to Los Angeles in 2000. But after a string of minuscule television parts — a waitress on “Titus,” an instructor on “Jake in Progress” — she wasn’t getting anywhere.

“I’m the person who tests for shows, but I’m always the bridesmaid and never the bride,” Fowler said after the presentation. “I tested for ‘The Class.’ I’m the person who is one of three or four girls for everything. And I’m just not the girl who breaks through.”

On those gloomier days, she blamed herself. “A lot of times I think it has to do with my Southern accent,” she said. “I have a unique voice. And it’s not necessarily reflective of N.Y. or L.A., and that’s where you get jobs. I represent red-state America.”

But, she figured, why not turn that potential weakness into a strength? So she sat down to write herself a starring role.

Fowler, Deutch, the producers and the dancers hit a number of production companies and studios last week, sometimes pitching three times a day. They visited Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Picturehouse, Columbia Pictures, Walden Media, Gold Circle Films, MTV, Miramax, Groundswell Prods. and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. They performed in boardrooms, lobbies, vestibules, even an art gallery. Dancers changed in cramped bathrooms and stairwells.

At the Columbia meeting, said Deutch, the pitch proved something of a siren song, attracting a circle of curious execs from neighboring offices. “All they are used to is conference calls and budgets,” he said. “It was funny and amazing to see all these people there.”

In the case of “Cloggers,” the producers and agents felt that because very few Hollywood people were familiar with clogging, a presentation was the best way to go. (bold added for emphasis)

“Sometimes people think the dancers wear wooden shoes,” Sokolow said. Added Bartlett, “This is to give the script context — so when they get to the part in the script where it says, ‘They dance,’ people have an idea what we’re talking about.” With this particular pitch, he said, “the power of the beat is so mesmerizing, and it grabs them.”

Getting attention in Hollywood sometimes requires out-of-the-box thinking, and the recent past has seen several notable examples. In June 2005, Microsoft had its “Halo” script delivered by a small army of armored-suited characters from the video game. In the spring, execs received an elaborate bouquet of flowers worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars for “The Florist,” a pitch from Ashton Kutcher and producing partner Jason Goldberg. The project landed at Columbia after heated bids. The script for “Willard” — a remake about a special and murderous rat, which would later become a New Line movie starring Crispin Glover — was sent out with a live rat in a cage.

With the presentation done, the execs were given the script to “Cloggers.” Some asked Fowler and Deutch questions about budget — they anticipate working in the $12 million-$15 million range and shooting in South Carolina — and casting.

As a break from the routine of a conventional pitch meeting, the gambit was a hit. “If (the dancing) was on a DVD, I’d just pop it in and watch it while I was doing other things, like sending e-mails or reading,” one executive said. “Oh yeah,” his colleague agreed. “This was much better. This was cool.” But all the executives acknowledged that, despite how excited they may have been, there was no guarantee of a sale. Ideally, the filmmakers would like to close a deal before the holidays.

Fowler may have gone out there a-clogging, but would she come back a star? She’s waiting for that answer.