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How to Clog

Clog - How to do the Touch Heel, Outhouse, and the Donkey

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Martha Hemingway is the director, choreographer, and instructor for the Happy Feet Cloggers, an adult clogging group from Fairfax, Virginia. She teaches beginner, intermediate, and performer clogging classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for the City of Fairfax Parks and Rec Dept., Green Acres Center, 4401 Sideburn Road, Fairfax, Virginia. Martha first learned to clog when she joined a Northern Virginia group called the Sugarfoot Cloggers in 1987. In September 2000 she founded the Happy Feet Cloggers. She was an instructor at the Potomac Double Down clogging workshop in Haymarket, Virginia, in 2006 and 2007 and an instructor at the Washington Area Square Dancers Cooperative Association’s (WASCA) clogging workshop in 2005 and 2006. Her first experience as a dance instructor was teaching tap and jazz classes for the Fairfax County Rec Dept. She also taught tap at The Dance Company, a private dance studio, and for the Fairfax County Park Authority. Martha’s “Happy Feeters” competed in the 2001 Mid-Atlantic Clogging Championship, held in Maryland each year. Her team brought home three 1st-place trophies, one 2nd-place trophy, and two 3rd-place trophies. Happy Feet is funded in part by the City of Fairfax Commission on the Arts.

Clog - How to do the Touch Heel, Outhouse, and the Donkey

In this video, clogging instructor Martha Hemingway demonstrates basic clogging steps and combinations. The lessons are for beginner cloggers and focus on technique and clogging terminology. Martha also talks about clogging shoes and gives suggestions on how to attach taps to tennis shoes to create a less expensive clogging shoe. The video ends with a mini routine, which includes some of the clogging steps and combinations taught throughout the video.

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Hello! My name is Martha Hemmingway and I am teaching the basics of clogging. This time we are going to learn about the touch heel. Touch means you just touch the floor with the ball of your foot. You do not want to put any weight on it thats called a step when you actually put your weight on it. You want to just touch the floor and then on your standing foot, pick up the heel and drop it, so a touch heel, touch heel. Other foot, touch heel, touch heel. Now, let me face this way so you can follow, practice again, the touch heel. Touch heel, touch heel, and we will go to the other foot touch with the right, touch heel, touch heel.

Two of my favorite steps that I just love the names are called the outhouse thats about countries you can get, something named outhouse and the donkey, and both of these clogging combinations involve the touch heel. So, lets learn them. First one is an outhouse; you are going to double step on the left, touch out to the side, drop your heel, cross touch, drop your heel and touch back out to the side again and drop your heel. That was one outhouse done on the left. Now, to make sure you can remember which is which because the donkey is very, very similar, think of the word out and outhouse and when you touch, you touch out first, and that will help you remember which is which. So, lets work on the outhouse a little bit more. We will do it left and right. Start with a double step, double step, touch heel, touch heel, touch heel. Now, go to the right foot, double step, remember we go out first, touch heel, touch heel, touch heel, and a one and two and three and four and a five and six and seven and eight. Thats the outhouse. Now, let me show you the donkey, the donkey is very similar except the donkey when you touch, you are going to crossover first, you are not going to go to the outside, you are going to crossover. Let me show you what I am talking about. Again, we start with the double step on the left, and you are going to cross touch first, drop that heel, touch to the outside, drop that heel and then touch back and drop the heel. So, that was one donkey on the left, lets do it on the left again, and double step, touch heel, touch heel, touch heel, lets go to the right, double step, cross open back, left cross open, back, cross, open and back. Okay, so you have learned the touch heel with the outhouse and the donkey. Next, we are going to learn the brush up. Happy clogging!