A bit of historyAppalachian dance derived originally from English, Irish and Scottish step dancing, taken by settlers to the Eastern American states. These were distilled into this new dance form, which was influenced by the contact with African Americans and to some extent Native Americans as well. | |
| In the 1920s performance teams started to spring up. One of them even performed for King George VI & Queen Elizabeth on a visit to the White House in 1939. To make more of an impact in performances teams started to add taps to their shoes in the 30s & 40s, but many old time dancers continue to dance in plain flat soled shoes. In the 1970s & 80s groups from the States like the Green Grass Cloggers and Wild Goose Chase Cloggers were performing in the UK at festivals and the dance style started to take off over here. | |
More recent timesOver the years Touchwood have been a familiar sight, performing and running workshops at many festivals, including Bedworth, Bridgenorth, Chippenham, Lichfield, Towersey, Warwick & Wimborne.
Our band "Going Tapless" provide the exciting rhythms from the old time style of music that keeps everyone's feet tapping! |
