Flatfoot Dancing – September and October 2015

Mondays ∙ 7:00pm - 8:30pm ∙ 14 September 2015 to 19 October 2015
£45 for six weeks (email us for information about concessions)
The Round Chapel
With Alice Cade
Please email us to reserve your place

IMG_1227 IMG_2468This is a six week course on Appalachian flatfoot dancing taught by Alice Cade. During the course you’ll get to learn a variety of steps from the basics to more advanced syncopated moves.

Emphasis will also be put on the creative aspects of flatfoot dancing.  Like other forms of step dancing, flatfooting is a solo dance form so leaves dancers free to find their own rhythms, their own grooves and find their own style of stepping.

Flatfoot dancing is the name of the percussive step dancing form done the Appalachian Mountains.  It is sometimes referred to as clogging (although “precision clogging” reefers specifically to a related dance form which is done wearing tap shoes and has an emphasis on performance).  In flatfooting and clogging dancers use their feet to beat out the rhythm to accompany tunes played which are often played on the fiddle, banjo and guitar. Flatfoot dancing has it’s origins in the step dancing traditions of England, Ireland and Scotland, but like most American folk forms is highly influenced by African music and dance.

Here’s a nice video of everyone throwing down some moves in the bar after a class in term 2 (apologies for the sound quality).

Thanks to Jo Bowis for teaching these classes classes at Chats Palace.

And here’s some of the graduate students…

 

Location

The Round Chapel, Hackney
The Round Chapel
Powerscroft Road
London
E5 0PU

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