INTERVIEW: Mike Curtis from All That Clogging Group – Part 2

All That clogging group is on America’s Got Talent and representing contemporary clogging PERFECTLY!

We had the chance to interview the leader of their team, Mike Curtis. This is Part Two of our interview with Mike Curtis from All That!

Read the first interview with Mike and let him know how much you appreciate what he’s doing for clogging by making a comment!

6. Where has clogging taken you?

Clogging has taken me to Japan, Canada, China, Germany, and more than 25 different states across the US! Also, our group ALL THAT! has been featured on several television shows including Dance Fever, Star Search, and most recently, runners up on season 1 of America’s Got Talent!

7. Why do you recommend clogging to EVERYONE?

It’s kept me out of trouble and in great shape!

8. Who has been the most influential clogger to you?

I would have to say Steve Smith from KY, Brent Montgomery from Ohio, and Jeff Driggs from WV. All three have played major parts in getting me to where I am today.

9. How can www.ClogOn.com help promote clogging to the masses even more?

Try to keep in touch with some of the more recognized more traveled groups and individuals across the country. I’ll help in any way I can!

10. What do you think of traditional clogging vs. the new hip-hop/jazz type clogging?

Everything evolves. Clogging has evolved in its own right with the hip hop style being included. I don’t like seeing too much of the hip hop stuff being added in though. A little bit is cool but too much takes away from the dance that we all LOVE, and that’s Clogging! I’d like to see the footwork continue to be pushed to the limits and a nice accent of the hip hop be thrown in. That would ideal for me.

ClogOn: Thanks so much Mike. It was great to talk to you about clogging.

Mike: Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for ya Nate! Talk to you soon!

Mike Curtis
ALL THAT!

www.toetaps.com

INTERVIEW: All That Clogging Specialist Mike Curtis

If you haven’t heard, there’s a clogging group right now on America’s Got Talent and they are ROCKING IT!

All That just advanced to the wild card round of America’s Got Talent. We’re so excited for them and appreciate them representing contemporary clogging so well.

ClogOn.com had the chance to interview Mike Curtis from All That. To help “keep clogging strong!” we love talking to people like Mike about the different dimensions of clog dancing: frequently asked clogging questions, where clogging is headed, and why everyone should get involved in clogging.

Special thanks to Mike for taking time out of his busy schedule to interview with www.ClogOn.com.  This is Part 1 of a two part interview with Mike:

1. What’s the difference between clogging and tap?

Clogging uses the heel of your foot as much as the toe whereas tap dancing uses primarily the toe. Also, with clogging you hit the floor a lot harder than tapping which produces a lot louder sound.

2. Why should I get in to clogging, I’m already in tap, jazz and ballet?

Clogging is unique, tons of fun, a better cardio workout than most dances, and clogging is on the rise! It’s becoming very popular across the country!

3. What’s better, nail on or glue on taps?

Nail on taps are definitely better. Glue on are simply difficult to keep on the shoes, no matter how well they are put on.

4. What do you prefer, the split toe clogging shoe or the Mr. Stomper?

Neither. I prefer the Director’s cut shoe. We have been working with Capezio, designing a new clogging shoe that should be released soon. They will be the perfect shoe! (when they come out, ClogOn will definitely carry these clogging shoes!)

5. How long have you been clogging?

I’ve been clogging 18 years.

Stay tune for part 2 of the interview with Mike Curtis from All That. Subscribe to our free email notification for the latest clogging updates, and let all your clogging friends know about www.ClogOn.com!  Thanks to Mike for the great information about clogging!

VIDEO: All That on America’s Got Talent

Featured Clogging Director: Pauline Toulouse Part Two

This is part two of our Featured Clogging Director series for Pauline Beaudoin. We appreciate all of our clogging friends and would love to feature you in the future.

Thanks for sharing this on Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else you can to help “keep clogging strong!”

7. If there were one thing ClogOn.com could do for clogging, what would you recommend?

Cue sheets of different styles and levels

8. What are the top 5 products you use most in clogging?

  1. Stevens taps
  2. Clogging videos
  3. Clogging shoes
  4. Music
  5. Cuesheets/syllabus

9. What are the 3 best clogging events you go to on at least a yearly basis?

Gigue en fete / Festival in Canada

Unfortunately in my area there is not much, we write most of our routines due to most conventions being so far away. We usually get videos and get new material that way.

Thank you for keeping clogging alive; we see many students wanting to get back to traditional in my areas. Please let me know if I can be of any help , yours truly
Pauline Beaudoin

Featured Clogging Director: Pauline Toulouse

ClogOn.com is committed to “keep clogging strong!” We want the whole WORLD to know that clogging is for everyone, that it’s a healthy and wholesome recreational activity, and that it’s a growing dance discipline that is become more and more mainstream with the help of cloggers like YOU!

One of our goals is to feature clogging directors and studio owners who are as committed to clogging as we are. If you or someone you know would like to be featured, please contact us today.

Name: Pauline Toulouse
Studio: Bradley’s School of Dance

1. How long have you been clogging?

About 13 or 14 years but I did step dancing before

2. Who is responsible for getting you started in clogging?

My dad is responsible for me dancing, he is a fiddler and step dancer and being around music I just wanted to keep dancing, my sister and I found a class in Fla and we never stopped dancing

3. What states and countries have you clogged in?

I have clogged in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Florida and Quebec, Canada

4. When did you become a dance studio owner?

I am not the owner but teach at Bradley’s School of Dance Top Hat Dance Studio and I am the co-director of Clogging Commotion which is directed by my daughter Jessica Beaudoin.

 

Featured Clogging Director: Hailey Renae Everton – Part Two

This is part two of a two part interview with Hailey Renae Everton, this months “Featured Fellow Clogging Director” at ClogOn.com!

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming “Featured Clogging Director” segment, please contact us today!

6. What age ranges do you teach in clogging?

I have taught ages 5-50.

7. If there were one thing ClogOn.com could do for clogging, what would you recommend?

First of all, I think it’s pretty cool that you have an option for cloggers to sell their used clogs on your site! I think a directory for cloggers around the nation are very handy. I especially realized this after moving from Idaho to Oregon. It took me a while to find Mike but I know there are more cloggers out there looking for groups. I posted an ad on Craigslist looking for students a while back and I found several people who had advanced experience and had been looking for groups but didn’t know where to look.

8. What are the top 5 products you use most in clogging?

  1. Clogging shoes & taps
  2. Ankle wraps
  3. Laces- I break mine a lot!
  4. Shoe bags
  5. Duct tape (thanks to Brian Bon)

9. What are the 3 best clogging events you go to on at least a yearly basis?

I would go to Clogging National Convention in a heartbeat. I’ve been to America Onstage competitions and BYU Camp numerous times but the two I’d love to experience and have been meaning to attend over the years is 2.) Fontana and 3.) NCCA Convention in Fresno, CA.

Special thanks to Hailey for her time. If you or someone you know would like to be featured in an upcoming “Featured Fellow Clogger” or “Featured Fellow Director” ClogOn segment, please contact us today!

Featured Clogging Director: Hailey Renae Everton

With the update to the new and improved site, one of our goals is to feature more cloggers on a consistent basis. Not only do we feel that featuring cloggers will help us all “ClogOn!”, but it’s also a great way for directors to let cloggers all over the world know who they are, what they do for clogging, and hopefully give them some increased traffic to their website and/or studio.

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming “Featured Clogging Director” segment, please contact us today!

1. How long have you been clogging?

13 years

2. Who is responsible for getting you started in clogging?

My mother: I wanted to Irish Dance but there was only clogging where I lived at the time. I fell in love instantly and knew I could do it!

3. What states and countries have you clogged in?

I learned to clog with the Rocky Top Cloggers in Twin Falls, Idaho and danced with them for 12 years. We danced/competed in competitions in Idaho, Utah, California and Arizona. I attended National Convention 2003 in Las Vegas as well. I was the 2009 America Onstage MVP Acapella Champion. RTC Director, Shannon Edwards, put together the Idaho Percussive Festival in November 2009 which featured cloggers from around Idaho. She asked Gary Larsen, Gina Underwood, and myself to teach a workshop for the Idaho cloggers. We performed with the students in an evening show for the public.

I danced with Clog America out of Salt Lake City from 2005-2009. I performed/participated in humanitarian projects/traveled with them to Brazil, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Sardinia, Austria and Germany. Austria was the only country we didn’t perform in when I was with them.

I’ve been dancing with Brian Bon’s Powerhouse Percussive Dance since August 2009. I did the following tours/conventions:

2009 and 2010 Bakersfield, CA
*2009 Montana Fair Convention*
2010 Port St. Lucie, FL
2010 Alameda, CA
2010 Ventura, CA
2010 Pomona (LA County Fair), CA
2010 Cedarville, CA
2010 Sidney, MT
2010 Bozeman, MT
2010 Steamboat Springs, CO

4. When did you become a dance studio owner?

I co-Directed the Rocky Top Cloggers for several years before moving to Portland, OR. Now I dance recreational with Mike McDow’s group the Carousel Cloggers in Tigard as with as a little group of ladies in Hillsboro who call themselves the Quantama Cloggers. I am trying to put together my own group of advanced cloggers and have slowly been introduced to more cloggers interested in dancing with me. Slowly, but surely it will come together [:)] I still choreograph for students in Idaho and help teach when I travel back to my hometown.

Special thanks to Hailey for her time. Stay tune for the 2nd half of her interview with ClogOn.com coming up next week at this same time.

Jayne Wilcox Treadwell ClogOn Interview

One of our main goals at ClogOn.com is to feature fellow cloggers and teams, not only to get the word out about what they offer in their local (and sometimes national) area, but also to create a clog dancing community that can have a strong “voice” in promoting clogging all over the world.

ClogOn.com has been interviewing clogging instructors from all over the world and will be featuring at least one clog dance teacher per month. If you’d like to be the next “Featured Fellow Clogger”, contact us today!

Jayne Wilcox Treadwell is a 3rd generation clogger who comes from a true clogging background…….30 years ago she learned to clog from her granddaddy in a barn! In addition to conducting weekly classes in Wilson, NC and surrounding areas, Jayne also teaches at clogging workshops in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Tennessee, Kentucky and Germany.

Jayne teaches traditional southern Appalachian mountain freestyle routines, buck dancing, freestyling, traditional figures and movements for big circle and four-couple sets, flatfootin’, as well as choreographed line and interactive clogging routines.

1. How long have you been clogging?

30 years. I began when I was a sophomore in college.

2. Who is responsible for getting you started in clogging?

My granddaddy, the late Dick Hubbard.

3. What states and countries have you clogged in?

Oh my! Not sure if I can remember all the states!!

  • Countries: US and Germany
  • States: NC, SC, GA, FL, TN, KY, VA, MD, PA, MA, NJ, DC, AZ. I think :-).

4. When did you become a dance studio owner?

I don’t own a studio. I teach recreational clogging classes through Wilson Parks and Recreation in North Carolina, and I direct the East Country Hoedowners, who I founded in 1991 when my son was 2-1/2 years old and my daughter was 3 weeks old.

5. What are the 3 best clogging events you go to on at least a yearly basis?

  1. Steve Smith’s weekend at Hoedown Island in Natural Bridge, KY.
  2. Hickory Hoedown Clogging Festival.
  3. North Carolina State Fair Folk Festival….I’ve attended the last 28 of them. 4 generations of my family have performed in them.

Thanks to Jayne for all she does for clogging!

Have you met Jayne Wilcox Treadwell or seen her move her “fancy feet”?

Part 2 of the Andy Howard American Racket Interview

Andy Howard is the director of American Racket. American Racket (Dance Company) features the sights and sounds of one of our, well, noisiest traditions… American Clogging and percussive dance! Productions feature some of the finest dancers in the country in a celebration of (loud) living traditions. These dancers have represented the United States in Brazil and Costa Rica and have opened for artists cuch as Bill Cosby, Sugar Ray, Ted Koppel, Dane Cook, Jimmy Lovelace, and Wayne Brady. American Racket is a guaranteed toe-tapping, hand-clapping good time for all and a celebration of what young adults are doing to revive and reinvent the dance culture of the United States.

Read Part 1 of the exclusive interview with Andy Howard from American Racket.

6. Where has clogging taken you?

Canada (twice), Brazil (twice), Costa Rica, Wales… I grew up performing at Dollywood during the summers. I taught courses at Florida State University and as a guest at University of Florida and several community colleges. I also taught at the Florida Dance Festival in Miami and for the Florida Dance Associations’ “Young Dancer Conferences” in various Florida regions. I was awarded a full scholarship to research clogging while teaching at Florida State University; my Master’s (M.A.) is in American Dance Studies. I have always enjoyed the opportunity to dance my favorite dance with my favorite people.

7. Why do you recommend clogging to EVERYONE?

If you don’t try it, you’ll never know what you’re missing out on. I can’t imagine my life without clogging, or my clogging family.

8. Who has been the most influential clogger to you?

Bascom Lamar Lunsford. He was the organizer of the 1928 festival where clogging was born. He, no doubt, did the most to promote the style and also old-time music, including work with the Smithsonian. Of course, I never met Bascom because he passed in the 1970s before i was born. I have studied him quite a bit and I can relate with him a great deal. We also have many random similar interests/experiences. For instance, he spent a short time beekeeping and my cousins are beekeepers, so I was raised around beekeeping. Lots of random stuff… If you’ve seen videos or photos, you can tell Lunsford was very proud of the styles and did his best to share the knowledge with others. In terms of a contemporary hero, I would say Scotty Bilz. Scotty is very well known for his contributions to clogging, but he is also a Florida boy. In my opinion, Scotty helped put Florida on the map as a (once) clogging Mecca. His style also influenced most Florida competition teams, especially in the 1980s and 90s. Although I never danced directly for Scotty, the style of clogging that I grew up on is heavily influenced by Scotty’s work with those who taught me, etc.

9. How can ClogOn.com help promote clogging to the masses even more?

I have a theory about the “decline” in clogging since the 1990s. As teams got more advanced, clogging groups became less community based and more specialty based. You see more teams with dancers from many different communities (often different states), and less teams that are from the same hometown. Although this aided in the level of the dancing, we see on stage, now less people are teaching beginners and investing in small-town or community teams. We are missing the entry stage of the clogging ecosystem. I think clogging instructors should work together to invest in clogging on the local/regional level and invest in teaching beginners of all ages. I believe that the lack of available instruction (on all levels) has resulted in a decline. We have to take time to teach!… and teach teachers!

10. What do you think of traditional clogging vs. the new hip-hop/jazz type clogging?

We need both. I completely support progressive adaptations to our dance style. I also think it is important to keep the traditional styles in practice. It is like having a museum with different “wings” for historic and contemporary art. I admit that I enjoy both, but I have benefited most from knowing and understanding the traditional.

ClogOn Interview with Andy Howard from American Racket

Andy Howard started clogging at age 8 in his hometown of LaBelle, in SW Florida.  As a young performer, he was a member of Sidekick Cloggers, frequent entertainers at Dollywood theme park and various regional and national events.  Andy founded SoundStage in 2001 while attending University of Florida; the original group comprised students and regional dancers specializing in clogging, tap and other forms of percussive dance.  In 2007, the group relocated to Central Florida and adopted the name “American Racket,” originally the name of a performance organized and choreographed by Andy for the Orlando International Fringe Festival. Andy was inducted into the All-American Clogging Team in 2002, administered by the American Clogging Hall of Fame. Andy earned his M.A. in American Dance Studies from Florida State University where he published a thesis on the history of American Team Clogging. Check out American Racket on Facebook!

1. What’s the difference between clogging and tap?

Both forms had pretty similar (if not the same) backgrounds before the 1920s. Of course, there was still a lot of variance in the individual or regional styles, especially depending on ethnic tendency (Irish, English, African, etc.) and theatrical styles vs. vernacular styles. In my opinion, the most significant divergence occurred around 1928 at the Rhododendron Festival (soon after renamed Mountain Dance and Folk Festival) in Asheville, NC. This festival hosted a square dance (teams, each with a band, invited by invitation only) to showcase regional music and dance for tourists. Reportedly, a few years into the competition teams started introducing percussive footwork while executing the “big set” (8 couple as opposed to 4) square dances. This was the birth of team clogging and team clogging competitions. (Note: I use the word “team”, because there were solo clog competitions, but it was more akin to English clogging from Minstrel and vaudeville circuits in America than our drag-slide style) Workshops and conventions grew out of the interest generated by the competitions and performances, especially when clogging hit the Grand Ole Opry stage with the Sloan Dancers in the 1950s.. The name “clogging” wasn’t used until the late 1930s. The term “tap” wasn’t used until around that time also. I have heard many theories about tap vs. clogging; one is usually described as more “up”/”down” or more on the “heel”/”toe”… I do not feel that these are fair comparisons because they vary so much within each style… Lots of tappers and cloggers use heels and toes, they also vary in up/down. I think the fairest statement is that (1) clogging was closely tied to square dance and old-time music, especially at first…. and (2) they both developed out of different traditions and resulted in different dance communities.

2. Why should I get in to clogging, I’m already in tap, jazz and ballet?

A true dance enthusiast will want to try as many styles as possible. If you are dancing for exercise, switching styles is a good idea for maximizing aerobic response… the same as switching between the treadmill and bike at the gym. Your body can get used to one style and thus learns to use less energy. In terms of tastes, there are very few dancers that I have ever encountered that didn’t fall in love with clogging. It offers so much variety… it can be easy or very challenging… it can be country or hip hop… However, because it requires an up-beat tempo (regardless of genre), it is rarely dreary or depressing. It has an uplifting effect on your spirit.

3. What’s better, nail on or glue on taps?

I prefer nails.

4. What do you prefer, the split toe clogging shoe or the stomper?

I use Mr. Stompers. I have never tried the split toe shoes. We dance a lot on varied surfaces and I rely on the durability of the stomper. I often even add more sole (from a local cobbler) to the stomper to avoid burn-through.

5. How long have you been clogging?

21 years

More to come about Andy Howard!

Would you like to be featured as the next “Featured Fellow Clogger” at ClogOn.com? Contact us today!

Powerhouse Cloggers are Famous in Nebraska

Look where clogging has taken former Utah clogger Brian Bon – ALL OVER THE WORLD!

Brian Bon started clogging in Utah when he was 15 years old and he says he never would have believed that he’d still be clogging 25 years later.

The leader of the Powerhouse group owes his start in percussive dance to a 4-year stint on a classic country television show, “When I was 15 is when we started doing Hee Haw so as stupid as it sounds it totally changed my life to be a clogger on Hee Haw because I’ve spent the rest of my life doing that and I’ve been teaching 25 years.” And Brian’s taught thousands of people his own unique style, “It’s a combination of clogging, tap, Irish and stomp. It has it’s roots in contemporary clogging. I started off dancing with my brother and sisters. My mom and dad had 12 kids and 7 of us danced together for 20 years.”

Brian says, “There’s not a big market for percussive dance so for me to get up there whether it’s twenty people or a thousand people we’re dancing for they always love it, it’s so exciting and as long as they’re having a great time, I’m having a great time.”

As a native Californian Chrissy Simmers is enjoying her first trip to Nebraska, “So far the people here are so nice and it’s not like that in California.”

Getting paid to dance, Brian and his team are living the dream. Powerhouse is on the road for 73 days this summer and their ambitious schedule has them performing more than 300 shows over the course of about 3 months.

They’ll dancing here 4 times a day every day until the State Fair ends on Monday. The first show of the day is at 2pm followed by performances at 4, 6 and 8.

courtesy of Reporter: Lance Schwartz
Email Address: lance.schwartz@1011now.com