The Clogging Team, a student organization that has performed in over 250 state, national and international performances, will hold auditions for this year’s team on Friday in Talley Student Center Ballroom.

Meredith Craig, sophomore in communications and president of the team, said she’s looking forward to the upcoming team and performances.

“We’re really excited about getting new members and starting fresh by building a new team for the year and coming up with fresh new dances,” Craig said.

The mission of the Clogging Team is to promote and preserve the folk art and tradition of clogging through performance, service and competition.

“I hope that this year we can work on rebuilding our team and getting a fresh start,” Amber Russell, a sophomore in history and secretary of the team, said. “I also hope that we come up with a lot of new dances and that we all get along as well as we did last year.”

The Clogging Team usually contains about 16 members with ten positions filled, so students have the chance to audition for six remaining spots.

“This year, we’ve lost some [members] that have graduated, so we’ll hope to build a team of about 15 to 20, depending on the talent that we receive at tryouts,” Craig said.

The Clogging Team performs at events on campus, such as open house and in the Brickyard during Agriculture Awareness Week.

“People around campus think the Clogging Team is awesome, because it’s just so different and something unlike they’re used to seeing,” Craig said. “We are usually pretty well-respected.”

The team competes at the State Fair, community events and festivals, where they have received a variety of awards. In 2004, the team received eight awards from the State Fair. They also travel to elementary schools to perform and teach younger kids about clogging.

The team has had opportunities to perform at country music concerts at Alltel Pavilion. They have performed at the Rascal Flatts, Braid Paisley and Kenny Chesney concerts.

“This event is the most fun thing for us to do,” Craig said of performing at concerts.

Practices for the Clogging Team are year-round, two days a week for two hours at a time. The Team averages around 30 performances each semester.

“I hope to take on several new members and spend this semester working on new dances and updating the old dances. Many of our dances have been passed down year to year and although it’s good to keep those traditional dances, I am ready to create new ones,” Sarah Mitchell, a sophomore in biological sciences and treasurer of the team, said. “I’ll be really excited to get tryouts started and meet with the potential new team members.”