Founder Steve Cates announced that Cripple Creek Cloggers begin a new season of teaching and rehearsing at the Smyrna Senior Center. The first class is Sunday afternoon, July 16, 2023 at 4:30 p.m.
This will kick off Cripple Creek Cloggers’ 57th year with Steve Cates, director and caller, still at the helm. This new season of teaching and rehearsing comes with no charge and no dance experience necessary. Plus, they always finish by 6 p.m.
The troupe was organized in 1967 as a part of a 4-H Share the Fun activity at Kittrell School, performs traditional Appalachian style square dancing with a clogging step. Their purpose is and has been to preserve this dance tradition, demonstrate it and teach it. They perform in costumes traditional to the early part of the 1800s in Tennessee and accompanied by music of the period, usually including guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin and/or fiddle.
In 1982, they helped organize and remain the host troupe of International Folkfest. This event will be June 2 – 9, 2024 and members of Cripple Creek Cloggers and others in the community are working now to organize all of the activities. Among the countries who have shown interest in coming for 2024 are England(UK), Chile, Poland, France, Ukraine ( Canada), Latvia, Puerto Rico and Portugal.
Cripple Creek Cloggers upcoming classes:
- Sunday, July 16, 2023
- Sunday, July 23, 2023
- Sunday, August 13, 2023
Classes take place at the Smyrna Senior Center (100 Rakes St., Smyrna). For more information, visit cripplecreekcloggers.org.
