Dance Stage

Performance Times:

9:45 a.m.
1:00 p.m.
3:00 p.m.

Early in the fifth century Irish pagans formed a type of step dancing done in soft shoes, called a "soft jig." A "hard or double jig" is done in hard shoes. Some primary roots of clogging is the Irish jig of the British Isles (and Northern Europe's Lancashire Clog" from Belgium, Holland, and France). The settlers from these lands ultimately immigrated to America.

In England it is believed that girls working in the cotton mills supposedly beat out a rhythm in wooden clogs, keeping in time with the shuttles flying back and forth across the loom. This form of step dancing, called the "Lancashire Clog," later became popular with not only women, but also with the steel mill workers who formed serious competitions amongst each other.

In 1840, the "Lancashire Clog" showed up in America, becoming a precursor of tap (spin-off of clogging) and soft shoe began developing in time. Appalachian clogging emerged as a blend of dances brought by the early settlers of Ireland, Scotland, and England to the Appalachian Mountains.