Cane Street Cloggers bring longtime tradition across the state

The Cane Creek Cloggers are a performing dance troupe that specializes in Appalachian-style clog dancing. They share love of clogging and dancing and perform at festivals, conventions, street fairs and schools throughout North Carolina.

A clogger creates audible rhythms by percussion with feet and ham boning. The history of clogging dates back to more than 50 years ago. 

The Cane Creek Cloggers is the third iteration of clogging dance groups. In the 1970s, members of the Green Grass Cloggers formed another clogging group known as the Apple Chill Cloggers that gave free lessons at the stations in the mountains of North Carolina.

Jean Healy and Diana Montgomery were among the members of the Apple Chill Cloggers. Later in the 1980s, they got together with other neighbors interested in traditional dance and formed the third group known as the Cane Creek Cloggers. 

“I first saw percussive dance when I was around like 10 or 11 years old. I knew I wanted to find it…that it wasn’t part of my experience at that time.” Pershing said. “So, when I was 18 I first thought of clogging. I knew that it was something I wanted to be able to learn, so I started to learn it right away a little bit from Green Grass Cloggers, and a little bit from traditional dancers.”

Ruth Pershing has been dancing with the group for 33 years. “The percussive dance part of clogging has been around for centuries.” Pershing said. “It’s like a high-quality performance and personal expression with that, and also being part of a longer tradition and also this type of dance, this team clogging, and being able to continue at that tradition.”

Elyse Keefe, a native from the mountains of North Carolina, joined the Cane Creek Cloggers in 2012 out of her love for dancing.

“I grew up seeing a lot of clogging, but I grew up tap dancing myself,” Keefe said. 

“While I was living in Galicia in Spain, I learned how to do the Galician folk dance and decided that when I came back I really wanted to learn my own folk dance and thought of clogging, and found Cane Creek Cloggers, and so I joined the group then.” 

 Keefe said she truly enjoys performing with the group, especially wearing the traditional clothing .

“We practice once a week, and do performances throughout the year, mostly at festivals,” Keefe said. “We always perform with the live band, and try to have very high energy and fun performances.”

When asked about why clogging is important to her, Keefe said she has a passion for music. 

“I grew up seeing a lot of clogging,” Keefe said. “Part of it for me is also the music. We dance to all kinds of music, which is similar to Bluegrass. “

Bill Barnett, software engineer for Microsoft, has been dancing with Cane Creek Cloggers since 2006. 

“It’s fun. It’s good exercise. We are a group." Barnett said.  "It’s a team kind of working together to produce something pretty neat, that people enjoy, so I like that. I like the team aspect…every Tuesday evening I get to know these people very well.” Barnett described the dance team as an “extra family” and had a lot of fun traveling to Michigan to perform at a music festival in front of a big crowd. 

Pershing thinks the importance of clogging comes from the people. 

“Clogging is one of the most joyful type of dances that I can imagine. It brings joy to people,” Pershing said. “People smile. People are happy. They walk away feeling better If we can bring joy to people and help people come together with wherever, whatever their worlds are, to smile together and be together and build community together and make their own entertainment and share it, I think that's a really important thing.”