Rhythm and Roots: An American Folk Dance Extravaganza

American Footworks Dance Company and the American Footworks Bluegrass Band will host a free clogging dance performance on the House of Music's Outdoor Stage.

About us
Our 20-24 dancers are selected annually from approximately one hundred students from clogging dance studios in Idaho, based on their skills, commitment, attitude and performance abilities. Each must be a skilled clogger and show proficiency in other dance styles.

What is clogging?
American clogging has its roots in the intersection of various dance forms of early European immigrants, Native Americans, and African slaves, primarily in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The dance was an improvisational, percussive solo or individual dance form that was danced at community celebrations, harvest festivals, baptisms, church gatherings, and dance halls. Towards the end of the 19th century, communities began to incorporate this improvisational footwork into social, formation and square dance figures brought with them by immigrants from the diaspora in Western Europe. Known today as "hoedown" or "freestyle" clogging, the social event took many forms regionally and remained a popular community activity.