It’s the NC State Fair and you know what that means: time to do some clogging in the NC State Fair Folk Festival! This particular dance is called a “smooth” dance which is a bit more “modern” variation on clogging compared to the “traditional” styles.
Katie had been after me for a couple of years to do a Daddy/Daughter dance with her and so this year I finally gave in and gave her wish as a gift. And I’ll tell you right now…the main reason I’d not been all that keen on it was that the prospect of being up on stage in front of a fair heap of people and showing just how clumsy and incompetent at dance it was possible for my panoramic self to be was a truly terrifying prospect.
And then the rehearsals leading up to the Fair weren’t necessarily encouraging. I honestly don’t know how some of these girls can keep the choreography to ten completely different dances straight in their heads when this one not particularly difficult one was enough to flummox me from time to time (and I wasn’t the only one!).
Then there was the occasional inability to distinguish my left hand from my right that I still laugh about today. During one particularly memorable sequence involving the directional brain fart, I managed to screw things up so badly that the clogging teachers ended up nose-to-nose which was not exactly how it was supposed to go! Fair play to Ms Jenni and Ms Brenda for only being slightly annoyed and completely overcome by laughter, respectively.
This brings us to the day of the performance at Dorton Arena. And to be sure, the butterflies were really rocking the old gastronomic system to the point where I really wondered just how industrial grade the spew would be when it’d hit.
Except that shockingly it never did.
It probably helped tremendously that we were often in the back of the group nearest to the band which was a welcome distraction. But somehow the choreography clicked and two performances later we were done. And honestly, it was probably one of the most empowering experiences of my life even though it was *WAY* out of my comfort zone. The performances weren’t necessarily perfect in terms of alignment or timing but once the music started and our leader Miss Bailey started barking out the commands for the various steps, it actually was rather fun with a couple of times Katie and I had a hard time not dying of laughter.
I don’t think I’ll be signing up for “So You Think You Can Dance” (because I’m rather sure I know the answer) or “Strictly Come Dancing” anytime soon. But it is nice knowing that for a few brief hours…my amateur attempt at dance really made Katie’s day that day.
And that made the whole experience worth it…even the abject terror! 🙂
