I've watched this one so many times in the past few years. He is such a good dancer. I love to see a man, who looks like a man, dance and especially like nobody's watching.
Haha! My coworkers just cringed when I'd break out and start clogging if a good song came on! I'd have to kick my sneakers off though! Guess I just embarrassed them?? I was having fun anyway!!
No disrespect to a bit o' squaredancing goodness, but This Guy Is What Dancin' is ALL ABOUT! His musicality is spot on, his posture is gorgeous, and he is truly expressing his art! I'm so glad he put it out there, I'm thrilled you were ready with the camera, and I'm a new fan of Flat-Foot Clogging! Bravo Paul! (Funky Charleston is CRAZY COOL!)
I can guarantee you that no one of this bunch is having any more fun than he is. I've been smiling ever since he began. I also enjoy watching true old time square dancing being done in the background. This was the was my parents danced.
That's actually contra dancing, not square dancing, but they are related so I can see why you would have thought ... but contra is MUCH more fun than squares because you dance with more people in each set!
Classical music guy here, but this was the most contagiously rhythmic music, got off my chair and went at it. Now, love this stuff. What a party. Thank you all.
Clogging is more modern than the flat-footed style. Clogging is choreographed to a specific song and shoes with metal cleats are worn. Paul is doing free styling. This is also more the kind of music flat-footers dance to. He is awesome, isn't he"
I have been watching this for many months and it is so inspirational to me. when I need some tranquility, this is the video I always play. Wish I could meet this guy he works off all his energy in dancing
Paul is a complete delight to watch. This video is one of my very favorite "spirit lifts," so I thank you for posting more than I can say. Few take the serious time to develop old traditional dancing anymore, and so this example is a wonderful means to perpetuate this dance form. I share it with my classes when I substitute teach. Bless you all. DJ
So two points: 1) I decided to learn to clog back when some contra dances still had active and inactive couples. When inactive, there was time to do a little footwork to keep from "standing in a line bored to death" - that is when one didn't cheat by grabbing a swing with a partner or someone in the next set. 2) The bigger point - which surprised me when I learned it - was that there actually is a New England tradition of a bit of stepping. I was told by Ernie Spence (a long. long time Boston area dancer who passed away a few years ago) that there was an unspoken challenge to see if, for instance in the dance Petronella, a person could do a different step every time they went down the hall and back. After this discussion, whenever Ernie saw me coming from the opposite direction he'd throw in a couple of fancy steps, give a mischievous smile and look for a response from me. I still try to get some simple stepping in during a dance, through as the sound gets louder and louder the foot percussion is harder to hear. (Am I showing my age :-) )
Great dancing two ways... an artist at solo buckdancing on the leftover floor at the end of a contradance set, while the contradancers dance for and with each other. Like the song says, "enjoy yourself." Wild Asparagus is wonderful. Thanks for the video. I'll have to get to the C'ville weekend next time!
Growing up in San Francisco, all I saw was hippies dancing in the park. I wish I was exposed more to this type of dancing, I might have learned how to dance (any style!).
The singer sings; "Enjoy yourself, its later than you think..." At .38 a beautiful blonde daughter of nature asks him to dance. He is too solo this night, wrapped in his thoughts. Enjoy yourself... He never sees her again. She was sent by the Spirit to be the mother of his children who are fated to bring peace to the world, cure cancer, and conquer aging. The song continues; "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think..." Paul continues his solo dance through time not knowing the pivotal part he has just played...in the Twilight Zone...
Wonderful! Where did this take place? Presumably somewhere in the USA. Strangely the rest of the dancers left him plenty of space and weren't taking a blind bit of notice of him. The dancers themselves seemed to be enjoying themselves thoroughly, all three generations of them. Looks like a wonderful community to live in. Fascinating!
Hi Chris. This took place in Charlottesville Virginia, USA. There are contra festivals all over the East coast at different times of the year. It is the most good clean old fashioned genuine fun I have ever had in life and all contra dancers are invited in to dance and you don't really need a partner as everyone switches after each dance. Are you outside of USA?
I jus keep coming back .. I get such a kick outa this … he is seeming to float .. and I love that he cares not that everyone else is doing the regular dancing … he jus does his thing
If I return to America, as I have only been once, these are the people that I would like to meet. It seems that if I turned up one evening at a contra dance, l would be welcomed.Heart warming home baking real people having had a hard working week behind them emnjoying themselves. UK was like that in the distant past.I am humbled to watch this
don't know much about flatfooting or buck dancing, but i watch a ton of it on you tube and paul is by far the best i've seen. he is fun to watch, he very much has his own style and that hard to find in any kind of dancing these days. more videos paul.
This type of dance is huge in the Southern Applacian mountains of NC, TN, VA etc. Clogging or Flat footing was brought by the English and Scotch and Irish settlers.
Now I remember what he reminds me of! The old style puppets where the joints are all rope and you just jiggle a stick while you hold it over a flat surface. My Pop-pop collected them 😊
Here I am again and reading all the comments, the mention of Irish and Scottish is interesting, shame Paul is not of Welsh descent too. He just dances like my best friend, she hears music and picks up the tempo. Go Paul, keep dancing
I love him. I’d like to be his partner. Growing up I had a WICKED stepfather(he was so WICKED, he MADE me marry someone I didn’t love, when I was 16 even though I had a fiancé that was in Vietnam) who wouldn’t allow me to go to school dances and I got a whipping when he caught me in my bedroom dancing. So when I finally got away from the WICKED stepfather and the WICKED husband, I went crazy dancing, any kind of dancing. Now I’m 66 and I still love dancing. And if I’m not dancing, I love watching someone else dancing! Please keep on making these videos. By the way, I never saw the fiancé again, but I heard he’s living in Washington state, married (of course) to a woman who had 5 children. He was an orphan, so I suppose he liked that. Thank you for the dance, and for letting me vent. Lol. I’ve never told anyone that story.
