Ghosts of Dancers Past

In Amarillo, the clogging group was mostly middle school through adult age (there were at least four 50 year olds in there!) Hanna and Alana were the babies in there, along with 2 other lil' girls, but the teacher welcomed them right in. It was family friendly, at that worked well for us. They still were able to learn a lot of the dances. Alana did all but their most advanced competition numbers.

This is at The Big Texan, a famous steakhouse in Amarillo. It's shown in the bonus features of the Disney movie Cars. If you can eat a 72 ounce steak and all the trimmings in one hour, it's free. The group danced there every 2nd Tuesday each month. In the "Cowboy Palace." Sorry--this was the best picture I had of that.



A Clogging Showcase on the San Antonio River Walk. We had 15 minutes, so we did a little Irish dancing too. (Yep, I'm in there, 4 months pregnant with Bridger.)



I think this was the Beer Barrel Polka, or something. The 4 little girls started it out in wooden dutch shoes. NOT comfortable, by the way. But it was fun dancing along the river with the tour boats going by. (The audience is sitting across the water.)











That last group of pictures was at a little neighboring town's fair along Route 66. (Vega, TX.) Later that afternoon, big tornadoes were rolling through, and they had to cancel the evening festivities. Luckily, we were back home by then (an hour away). I wish I had a better group picture of the whole group, but I guess I usually just zoomed in on our girls.



Hanna especially stood out, being one of the tiniest there, with her bright white hair. When she'd occasionally get discouraged because she couldn't dance as well as the bigger girls, or because she was bored sitting out of the dances she couldn't do, we'd remind her that people had fun watching her just because she looked like she was happy, even if she made some mistakes. Most of the time, she was fine with that. At least there was one or two other little girls with her sometimes to keep her company. And it was nice that all 3 of us could do it together as a family. (I did it a few years too.) Our last year there, Alana was getting a little bored, since the teacher wasn't teaching anything new. So she quit going, but Hanna wanted to keep going. That was the year she was at the point where her coordination really clicked, and she could grasp more intermediate steps and improve really fast. Around 3rd grade, which I seem to notice in a lot of other dancers too. (Like the buck-steps, for those of you who know what I'm talking about.) So even though she only did clogging here in Sunnyside for 5 months total, I think she's caught up to the level Alana was at when we left Amarillo.

And by the way, if you're ever looking for fun aerobics, I recommend clogging! I think it's the most user-friendly kind of dancing out there--especially for beginning adults. And for the moments when you can't remember what to do, you can always just bounce and do the basic step, and you blend right in! There are no "sore thumbs" that seem to stick out, from what I noticed.

I tried to find a short video clip of them, but apparently, all those videos were taken by our non-digital archaic camcorder, and I don't have the software to transfer it to digital yet. But if you ever drive up to our home and the house is shaking, it's probably b/c they've got country music on, and are poundin' their feet away in our dining room. (We've pushed the table back to the wall, and now it's a mini dance hall. Or "cultural" hall. Heh-heh.) And since that's the window on the porch with no curtain, you may even get a peek at a "show" without our knowing. Especially if you arrive after dark, when it's time to do our ADJs. (After Dinner Jobs.) That's usually when the music turns on.