I'm almost 81 years old and have been clogging since I was 4, never have I seen a group dance that looks as if they don't enjoy dancing, to stiff and no look of happiness, we were always loose and full of smiles.
Yes! I was wondering about that, myself. They look as if they take themselves way too seriously. They just smiled at the end, as if they were relieved that it all went well.
They are doing ancient (by our standards) Welsh footwork. They also were inhibited by religious traditions that forbid 'enjoying' anything too much. We Americans (Appalachian)clog dance with utter abandonment, excitement and joy! They will appear very different. ------> ancient West Virginian here.
I think some people have judged these dancers too quickly. They have another more joyful number at the end. I’m glad I read the comments and learned about the “ mill machinery” it’s actually pretty funny if you think about it. Very well done. I’m sure group dance requires a lot of work and coordination. Bravo to all the dancers. Their dresses were so modest.
I'm sure they should be wearing bonnets (headscarves) to keep their hair out if the way. Mill workers wore clothing that wouldn't hitch in the machinery. Many accidents involved clothing or hair being caught in the machinery which wouldn't necessarily stop!
The dancers represent the machines they operate to make the cloth. The sound of the clogs was sound of the shuttles whizzing through the warp and weft. Therefore no reason to smile they are machines.... I've never actually seen this typs of clogging before but l knew straightaway the rhythm was the sound of the looms...
Having watched the looms in the last working Mill in Burnley, I can really see how this dance emulates that. And feel the deafening racket of the shuttles flying.
Очень интересный танец. Спасибо. Не перестаю восхищаться самобытностью и непосредственностью народных танцев из какого бы уголка нашей планеты они не были. Огромное спасибо тем, кто сохраняет это и восстанавливает. Браво!
My grandmother worked in the mills of Oldham in the 20s and 30s and was a well known clogger. This is a lot more authentic than some other clog dancers.
And still some persist in the lie that tap dance came from black America. Watch their opening step pattern and if you forgive the fact that clogs have no heels so their weight is further back than a tapper would be they are doing the classis single double and triple timesteps. My teachers all came from the celtic folk and Northern clogging tradition and so did their teachers before them
@@jillalexander3006 Sorry but although the soles are made from one piece of wood British clogs do have heels carved in. The front part curves gently upwards to facilitate walking. This creates different percussive tones as you dance.
@@jillalexander3006 Oh, and because of the shape of the sole, it isn't possible to use the ends of the toes to make good beats (e.g. shuffles), more by using the ball of the foot. Also, the balance is more with the feet side by side than forward or crossed as in tap or Irish dance. If you do cross over the feet for a movement you risk catching the heel on the front of the foot (which, believe me, can be painful!). These are the reasons the balance is different to tap or Irish dance, but it is closer to the American forms of step dances.
That was just marvellous. I’ve looked at American style cloggers on RU-vid sometimes and to me it seemed a bit frantic . One person or a few leaping noisily about sort of clicking and banging . I do realize knowledge dictates taste to a considerable degree ,and I’m unfamiliar with clogging. That being said , this presentation showed a great amount of detailed steps and a unity that must have taken a great deal of dedication and practice . Apart from all that it was a pleasure to watch ,and looked like a lot of fun .❤
The difference in American clog dancing and this might be due to the fact that American clogging is a combination of English, Dutch-German, Irish and Scottish traditions. The major groups that settled in the Appalachian Mts.
Rigorous! I wondered at first why they all looked so grim. Isn't dancing supposed to be happy? :D They smiled after the dance, like they were glad it was over!
@@dkathrens77 Somebody's Clog flew up, and broke the Disco Ball, during Rehearsals. Otherwise, it would have been "Nude Clogger Disco, USA!!!!" Try it, at Home and/or in a Public setting.
This is expertly done!! As someone who lived in Nelson at the time of the end of the Mills - my Grandparents worked their whole life in them and even my Mother. I remember the siren at 8am. If you weren't inside you didn't get paid that day! It was a hard life - they've all gone now - the Mills i mean. I don't live there anymore.
I love the various sounds they make with their foot work that had to take time and practice to all get it memorized the way they have. It's comforting to hear, it's like a for of communication. Like hearing a story being told without words
One of my Aunts killed herself because one of the tatlers at the mill took a shine to her. She had a boyfriend already so she ignored him. He said she’d got slubs in her weaving and docked her a days pay so she threw herself into the canal
I loved this. They took on the persona of the machine the, relentless rhythm. The workers themselves moving like an integral part of the mill, from morning til night. At the end of the day they slowly become themselves again.
in grade school, we did a similar dance, taught by the nuns, who showed us many older traditional folk dances...it was really fun, since my parents were dancers.
It was just the "late" dancer who rushes I just before the dance begins. In the bad old days, people working in mills and factories had wages docked or were even fired on the spot for lateness and the most trivial breaches of the rules. These dancers have a great understanding of the tradition they are maintaining and they do it so well. Love and peace.
First,,in old time smile only country idiot,second smile it’s relax,I believe hard to dance and smile,when you need pay sooo much attention what are you doing
@@galiyalaughnan5094 Every other kind of dancer manages to engage their faces I'm sure clog dancers could manage it if they wanted to. Apparently they are supposed to be depicting being at work which is why they aren't smiling.
Is smiling what you are concerned about and not the dance? This is essentially a play/theatre. You must be really unhappy watching another very talented group called Riverdance.
I admit I originally watched this video just to see a "diffrrent' kind of clogging from the Appalachian (USA) style clogging that I am used to as I saw in the video menu photo that the clothes were different than American Clog Dance clothing.. I got quite a new kind of treat! Thanks for sharing your fin ed group now has a new fan in Texas, me.
@@taro_znaki, танец, как я поняла, работников старых английских текстильных фабрик) Звуки, издаваемые во время танца их туфлями, имитируют звуки ткацких станков.
This performance of Nelson Mills did not include my usual preamble about working conditions in mills which would give the answers to some of the comments here. To answer some questions... Why are the dancers not smiling? They are playing the role of machines in a cotton mill. The rhythms of the dance are the sounds you would hear from various machines in a cotton mill. Machines don't smile. Where does this dance come from? The style is from the north west of England. The dance was composed by Pat Tracey who was born in Nelson, Lancashire. Her family had been clog dancing for generations. Her grandfather was a professional clog dancer in the mid 19th century. What was the music? I know the tune as "Far from Home".
I was wondering why the dancers looked so serious as they walked to the floor to take their places. They were getting into character. The 2nd dance - faces are not so serious. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Peace Out
Me too!!!! I loooooooove that commercial. I love all types of dancing and envy those that have talent like this. Look at the number of views. We need a DANCE channel. I enjoy the music too.
Brilliant, folk dancing,; clog dancers making the sounds of the spinning and weaving looms in the north of England. The clothes they are wearing are of the time.
Thanks for that insight. Doubtless the mill-workers had the rhythmic clatter of the machinery etched in their brains. Stands to reason they would re-create it in in their recreation.
My mother briefly worked in the cotton mills as a young girl. She told me that the combination of wooden clogs and oil on the floor resulted in the girls having beautiful, soft-skinned, feet.
My downstairs neighbors are soooo annoying blasting music w bass every single day for hours on end i swear im about to take up clog dancing and return the favor lol
They replicated the industrial machinery and the repetitive drudgery well, and when the machinery came to a stop, they could smile and in a circle dance the steps again with joy!
Are they dancing with the sounds of the factory ? We went to a mill museum in Manchester and what a hard life for workers including little kids. And most of them deaf from the loudness of the different spinning machines.
🎶🎶Mike Adamson 🎶🎶 " Thanks so much for sharing this video with your viewers. I'm admiring the inscinct movements from the dancers and kudos to the musician playing the accordion ! " 🎶👍👍🎶
I think God looks down from heaven at us humans and actually thinks we're funny. I'm so glad he placed creativity in us. I've never seen any dance like this. I live in Puerto Rico of course every culture and their folklore dance-we have ours and they have theirs. It is beautiful.
Here in the USA, Clog Dance is mostly done in Appalachia by descendants of Scots Irish, Welsh, and English immigrants in the villages in Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. Not many know the steps and few are actively participating. Was much more popular in the pre-1990s.
They are simulating the machines in the Mills with the rythms. Machines do not smile. Read the pinned account of this. It is deliberately expressionless.
Super dance and amazing accurate mill sounds but strange to be informed that, living and dancing in Nelson, Lancashire as our team mostly does, it may only be performed by Camden Clog. Ah me.
My grandad was I believe one of the last to wear clogs to his work as an engineer in Colne, I remember him walking home from work down the back streets, I could hear his clogs ringing on the cobbles as he walked, happy days. I believe Nelson was the home of the finest cloggers, I also remember little clogger’s shops in most towns in Lancashire. They expertly made clogs to fit an individual’s feet. We have lost so many skilled intelligent people to so called progress!
