Clogging or Flatfoot dancing^[1] is a type of folk dance practiced in the United States, in which the dancer's footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythms, usually to the downbeat with the heel keeping the rhythm.

Clogging is the official state dance of Kentucky and North Carolina.

Antecedents

In the United States, team clogging originated from square dance teams in Asheville, North Carolina's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival (1928), organized by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in the Appalachian region.^[2]

The Soco Gap Dancers performed at the White House in 1939, which caused an uptick in the popularity of team clogging.^[3]

American Clogging is associated with the predecessor to bluegrass—"old-time" music, which is based on English, and Irish fiddle tunes as well as African American banjo tunes. Clogging primarily developed from Irish step dancing called Sean-nós dance;^[4] there were also English, Scottish, German, and Cherokee step dances, as well as African rhythms and movement influences too. It was from clogging that tap dance eventually evolved. Now, many clogging teams compete against other teams for prizes such as money and trophies.^[5]

Terminology

The term "buck", as in buck dancing, is traceable to the West Indies and is derived from a Tupi Indian word denoting a frame or hurdle for drying and smoking meat; the original po bockarau or buccaneers were sailors who ate smoked meat and fish after the manner of the Indians.^[6] Another source states that the word bockorau can be traced to the "Angolan" word "buckra', and was used to refer to white people,^[7] which is disputed.^[8] Eventually the term came to describe Irish immigrant sailors whose jig dance was known as 'the buck'."^{[citation needed]}

One source states that buck dancing was the earliest combination of the basic shuffle and tap steps performed to syncopated rhythms in which accents are placed not on the straight beat, as with the jigs, clogs, and other dances of European origin, but on the downbeat or offbeat, a style derived primarily from the rhythms of African tribal music.^[9]

Yet another etymology of the word argues that it derives from the word "buck", used as a pejorative term for African American men in the 19th century.^[10] Buck dancing was popularized in the United States by minstrel performers in the late 19th century. Many folk festivals and fairs utilize dancing clubs or teams to perform both Buck and regular clogging for entertainment.^[11]