I went to my daughter’s dance competition last week. There were lots of categories (my daughter was competing in jazz and ballet), but “clogging” and “tapping” were two different categories, although I’ll be darned if I could tell the difference. Would someone be so kind as to explain it to me?
The rhythms – tap is usually syncopated, clogging isn’t.
twicks, tap-dancer for 15+ years
Clogging a la Michael Flatley is lame.
Tapping a la Gregory Hines is cool.
“Good answer! good answer!” [/Family Feud contestant]
One of the many things I didn’t like about Lord of the Dance (which is, strictly speaking, an example of “step dancing” (Irish) as opposed to “cloggin” (Southern U.S.) – aside from the profoundly creepy immobility of the dancers from the waist up – is that the example of tap they included was about 60 years out of date. There is much cooler stuff happening – like Savion Glover, for one. (See the "Where are all the dancers? thread elsewhere in this forum.)