Heels up for clogging course

TWO veteran cloggers are bringing the US-style folk dance to the region with the first wave of heels having struck the floor earlier this week.

The new eight-week ongoing beginner course called Creswick Cloggers is an initiative from formerly Melbourne-based cloggers Cheryl Holland and Neville Flegg.

With Flegg having moved to Creswick earlier this year and Holland relocating to Sulky in 2022, the latter said she’d seen an interest in the dancing style in the community.

“With people we knew in the area, they were keen to start back up again so that’s what made us want to start this beginner course to build the numbers,” she said.

“After the loss of Ballarat Cloggers, people have wanted something to fill that.”

The first class was held on Tuesday, with subsequent sessions to run weekly at the 1st Creswick Scout Hall.

About 15 people had registered to take part in the initial offering, and Flegg said he hopes for classes to reach 20 to 30 regulars within the first year.

He said Creswick Cloggers will teach people the fundamentals behind the dance.

“There’s only eight basic moves and from that, everything builds,” he said.

“From that, they soon become combinations and those become your steps. We’ll go through the things like basics and triples. They’re the simple building blocks and then it starts to grow and grow.

“The goal is not to 20 steps and you’re done. It’s an ongoing education but it doesn’t throw you in the deep end.”

The class is being run through the Australian Clogging Association, of which Flegg is past president and currently a Victorian state representative while Holland previously served as treasurer.

The pair aim to bring the ACA’s annual clogging convention, swapped between Perth and Victoria each year, to the region when it returns to the state in late 2024.

Similar to tap-dancing, clogging was established in the United States’ southern Appalachian Mountains by European migrants during the 1700s.

Each lesson will cost $10 and to register email [email protected].