Some folks remember the good old days of clogging in Western North Carolina.
Not long ago, all the local elementary schools had their own dance teams, and adult teams vied against each other to win coveted trophies. Melba Duvall, who danced 15 years with the Canton Ole Timers and another 18 with the Rough Creek Cloggers, remembers back in the 1970s when there were 17 clogging teams in Haywood County alone. Now there are an estimated 20 teams in all of Western North Carolina, as far as she knows from keeping up with the clogging groups. Instead of being a form of freestyle dance that accentuates the individual dancer, it is being confused with line dancing, Riverdance and other dance trends. Real Southern Appalachian clogging means each dancer has his or her own style while keeping time to the music.