THE ORIGINS OF CLOGGING

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All you really need to get started are a record or tape with a thumping 4/4 beat, a smooth-surfaced floor (with a lot of room), and a pair of comfortable (but not too loose-fitting) hard-soled shoes. (MOM's cloggers recommend that beginners locate a recording of "The Battle of New Orleans", since it has the requisite beat but is slow enough not to be discouraging.)

You'll feel awkward at first, but remember that speed comes only with practice ...and that your pace will pick up as you become familiar with the motions. (One of the Southern Appalachian Cloggers told, us that she polishes her frenetic footwork by putting on a pair of heavy sweat socks and working out for an hour—every evening—on the linoleum in her kitchen.)

SHUFFLE, ONE, TWO, THREE ...

Once you've mastered three principal clogging steps, you can piece them together to form all kinds of impressive routines. The easiest step is the chug. The name is derived from the fact that both its sound and appearance are reminiscent of an old-timey locomotive, and it's done like so: Stand with your feet slightly apart and slide/hop forward bending your knees and moving both feet at the same time-and then slide/hop back into place as you straighten your knees. That's all there is to it ...forward and back, forward and back. The chug is a particularly good movement to use when you're just getting warmed up and want to feel the rhythm of the music. (It does wonders for lazy thigh muscles, too! )

A second clogging step is the .single shuffle, which somewhat resembles a basic tap dancing move. To do it, lift one foot slightly above the floor, scuff the ball of the foot forward, and then brush it back ...this results in a kind of two-beat tap. After you've shuffled that foot, stand on it. Now, lift and shuffle the other foot, and then step down on it. (You may want to keep yourself on track by reciting "shuffle-step, shuffle-step" while learning this one.) Practice the move until you're comfortable, at which point you can proceed to the basic clogging step, a four-beat piece of footwork.

The basic step combines the shuffle with three well-timed stomps. Start by doing a shuffle with your right foot ...then bring your right foot down firmly (as in the single shuffle) ...follow that by repeating the stomp with your left foot ...and finish up by putting your weight back on your right foot. (A count of "shuffle, one, two, three" is useful for marking time.) Now, you are ready to repeat the same sequence, starting with the left foot: shuffle (left), stomp (left), stomp (right), stomp (left) ...and so on, alternating the leading shuffle between right foot and left foot as you go. (Professional cloggers often add an extra accent—by stepping with more authority —to the second and fourth beats.)

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