courtesy of the NC State Clogging team
NC State’s clogging club has been around for almost 30 years, and are still going strong. The Team has grown from only five members last year to having 16 members this year.
While NC State’s clogging club has been around for almost 30 years, last year was a tough season for the team. Fortunately for the dancers involved, things are looking up as this year ends and planning for next season begins in earnest.
“Last year was frustrating, because we only had five dancers, which is the minimum for competition, so no one could miss,” said former club president Leslie Morris, a junior studying civil engineering. “Now it’s just really exciting to have a team of 16 people, and not just 16 people, but 16 people who are really willing to work hard.”
Although Morris is no longer president, she is still actively involved in running the club.
The club took a break from competition to train their 11 new members and they returned to competing in March, winning a grand champion title for one routine at a regional competition in Columbia, South Carolina. Ordinarily, the team competes in a couple of regional events and a national event each year.
Morris is optimistic about the club’s prospects for next year, when the club will have a larger roster but also a lower percentage of new members.
“As of right now, we have six girls who are seniors in high school who are coming to State who are looking to join the team, so next year I think we will have a team of about 20 girls, which is exciting,” Morris said. “I think we’re only going to get stronger, I think that we do have the chance to win a national title.”
The average college student doesn’t have a detailed knowledge of the art of clogging, and members of the team were quick to dispel a common conception.
“We don’t dance in wooden shoes,” said Morris with a laugh. “We get asked that more times than I’d like to admit.”
Although clogging isn’t as popular with younger generations as many other forms of dance today, it has its roots right here in North Carolina.
“It started in the mountains of North Carolina, and so our shoes have taps on the toes and the heel, so it’s similar to tap, but more percussive and more traditional […] I think it’s kind of like a more athletic version of tap,” Morris said.
“We’ve always kind of compared it between tap and Irish dancing,” said team member Kathy Nowak, a freshman studying life sciences.
Perhaps clogging conjures up images of old-fashioned music and clothing, but the style is versatile, and NC State’s clogging team has adapted their dance style to many different musical genres.
“Traditionally, you dance to country and bluegrass music, but we’re more of a contemporary team, so we’ll dance to things like hip-hop songs.,” Morris said. “Our newest dance is to ‘Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran. We’ll take anything that has the right beat and make it a clogging routine.”
Although the team is thrilled to be back in competition, growing in numbers and winning awards, Nowak and Morris agreed that the friendships and sense of team spirit are the best parts of involvement.
“We show up to practice and we work hard and we have fun together … everyone wants the team to get better together,” Morris said.
Morris went on to say that while oftentimes studio teams can be fraught with division and rivalries within the team, the NC State team truly strives to get better as a whole, not just individually.
Nowak has only been with the club since the beginning of last semester, and she spoke enthusiastically about her first experience competing with the NC State team.
“My first competition with the team was just a couple weeks ago, and that was just fun […] all of our hard work of six or seven months finally paid off,” Nowak said.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about the club or considering joining can send an email to ncsuclogging@gmail.com. Since the semester is drawing to a close, they don’t have any more competitions or events coming up in the next few weeks, but they are regularly at the State Fair and Ram Roast.