Bluegrass music and Flatfoot dancing go together like bread and butter. Go to any event where there is live bluegrass music, and someone will set up a dancing platform or throw a piece of plywood on the ground and start flatfooting.
Flatfooting, also known as clogging, foot-stomping or buck-dancing, consists of dancing alone or in groups to up-tempo music, using enthusiastic footwork to emphasize the downbeat of the music. Flat-footing doesn’t have the shuffling, hopping motions found in most Irish clogging steps. Flat-footing steps are performed by sliding the feet rather than hopping and kicking. There are very few formal steps in flat-footing; dancers simply follow the beat of the music and “ad-lib” or freestyle their movements.
Here’s a quick look at a basic flatfooting step:
Flatfooting has its roots in traditional European folk dancing. It was originally called “clogging” because the dancers wore wooden clogs when they danced. The clogs served to emphasize the rhythm of the music by striking the heel, the toe, or both against the floor or each other to create a percussive effect. Wooden clogs are rarely used any more since most folks don’t own a pair of clogs.
The early Scots-Irish immigrants who settled in the Appalachian Mountains brought with them their jigs and clogging traditions. Over time, the steps changed and the dance came to be known as flatfooting.
Today, there are many variations in the footwear. Leather-topped shoes with a one-piece wooden bottom or separate wooden pieces on the heel and toe called “flats” are sometimes used (the terms “heel and toe” and “flat footing” derive from this type of footwear). Of course, at a bluegrass concert, no one cares what sort of shoes they are wearing; they just get up and dance.
Flatfooting competitions are commonplace at Bluegrass festivals. Here’s a clip of 12-year old Lulu Furtado taking first place at the Maury River Fiddler’s Convention in Buena Vista, VA near mile marker 46 on the Blue Ridge Parkway:
