A Beginners' CLOG-DANCING Workshop with SHEILA GRAZIANO

Saturday , February 25, 2006
01:00 pm - 3.00 pm
Location: Elderly Instruments
workshop ($35.00)

Sheila Graziano is currently performing with Matter and Ghost, a collaboration with "Michigan's troubadour," Neil Woodward. [For more information on this duo, see the related in-store event, titled "A Free MATTER AND GHOST Performance," listed just above this clogging event.] Sheila teaches private lessons, various dance workshops, and is the dance instructor and choreographer for two performing high school groups in Washtenaw County--The Saline Fiddlers and Fiddlers ReStrung.

Longtime Raisin Pickers Stringband soloist, founder and member of The Crosstown Cloggers and Crow's Feet dance groups, and professional traditional dance instructor extraordinaire, Sheila is offering this two-hour "feets-on" class to anyone age 10 and up who has a hankering to learn to clog-dance. NO PRIOR DANCE EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY.

Clogging is a form of traditional American stepdance. It is a percussive style of dance that developed in the Appalachian Mountains during the 19th and 20th centuries. Sheila will teach the basic clogging steps along with some of their variations. These steps are a perfect match for old-time and bluegrass music and can get you dancing at festivals, jam sessions, and in the comfort of your own home.

DANCE BOARDS are provided for the workshop. The class will start with the very beginning steps that can be adapted to a variety of skill levels. A basic familiarity with old-time and/or bluegrass music is helpful but not essential. Sheila advises students to wear leather-soled shoes, well-worn tennies, or comfortable boots for the workshop. No sandals, flip-flops, or sling-back shoes, please.

Layering of clothing is also recommended, Sheila advises, as "we warm up quickly no matter how spitefully cold the wintery day may be." Students should also bring their own water to drink, and are "more than welcome" to bring recording equipment if so inclined."

Sheila is teaching this clogging workshop concurrently with Neil Woodward, who is teaching (in another workshop room, well, sort of, for awhile...) an old-time stringband ensemble workshop designed to help stringed-instrument players become more comfortable playing with others in a band. After the first hour-and-a-half of the simultaneous workshops, the novice ensemble students will join the rookie cloggers so that everybody gets some experience playing together or dancing to live music.

And all this follows a free in-store concert by Matter and Ghost at 12 noon, in order to highlight a variety of styles of traditional American music, songs and dance, and to offer potential workshop attendees a chance to see what old-time music-and-dance (and more, we suspect) is all about.

Sheila discovered her passion for dance at a young age. Rooted in ten years of tap lessons, her enthusiasm grew with the discovery of Appalachian clogging and other forms of traditional dance. She devotes much of her time to developing skills and knowledge of traditional dance, including American, English, Irish, Scottish, and Canadian dance steps.

Don't miss out on this rare opportunity. It'll be fun! The workshop is Item # SHEILA-2006.

Check out recordings we carry featuring Sheila Graziano