CLOGGING IN CHAM
Theresa Keuker

My name is Theresa and I am 10 years old.

Since many years my younger sister Christina, 8 years old, and I are joining my parents for the Cham dance week, already. This year we participated for the first time – namely in clogging. On the spur of the moment Janice Justin offered clogging for beginners. I really doubted that I could follow because I don’t understand that much English. But Janice explained and showed everything that carefully that Christina and I understood the basic steps immediately. At noon every day the class for beginners started.

We were about 15 eager cloggers, eight of them real beginners. The others supported us. The atmosphere was great and all had a lot of fun. It was super and helped quite a bit that my aunt Carmen always clogged between us. And uncle Christoph was right behind us, showing thumbs up after every step to compliment us and our grand-daddy who joined, as well. He turned 78 last November.

For the last afterparty on Friday evening Janice planned a demo: first the beginners, then the intermediate dancers. I was so excited as I never performed clogging in front of other people! At 23:00 h the show began, the audience was amazed and clapped their hands very loudly. They even wanted to see some more from the beginners so we showed them the second dance we learned, as well. Then the intermediate cloggers came and did a really super performance. They got as much applause as we. Clogging was a lot of fun during that week and I learnt a lot. My favourite steps are Basic and Push off left/right. If there is clogging, again, next year, in Cham, then my sister and I will join, again!

Reprint from ECTA Newsletter 1105