Kentucky State Dance

Clogging

Adopted in 2006

Kentucky 2006 House Bill 208 introduced by Rep. Ted "Teddy" Edmonds (D) on January 4, 2006, to name and designate clogging as the official dance of Kentucky and was signed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher on April 17, 2006 to make clogging is the official state dance of Kentucky

Clogging is also the official state dance of North Carolina and was the social dance in the Appalachian Mountains as early as the 18th century.

Kentucky State Dance: Clogging

Clogging is a type of folk dance in which the dancer's footwear is used musically by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible percussive rhythms, usually to the downbeat with the heel keeping the rhythm. The dance style has recently fused with others including African-American rhythms, and the Peruvian dance "zapateo" (which may in itself be a derivate of very early European clog dances), resulting in the birth of newer street dances, such as tap, locking, jump, hakken, stomping, Gangsta Walking, and the Candy Walk dance. The use of wooden-soled clogs is rarer in the more modern dances since clog shoes are not commonly worn in urban society, and other types of footwear have replaced them in their evolved dance forms. Clogging is often considered the first form of street dance because it evolved in urban environments during the industrial revolution.

Kentucky Law

The law designating clogging as the official Kentucky state dance is found in the Kentucky Revised Statutes, Title 1, Chapter 2, Section 2.101.

TITLE I - SOVEREIGNTY AND JURISDICTION OF THE COMMONWEALTH.
CHAPTER 2 - CITIZENSHIP, EMBLEMS, HOLIDAYS, AND TIME.

2.101 State dance.
Clogging is named and designated as the official dance of Kentucky.
Effective: July 12, 2006
History: Created 2006 Ky. Acts ch. 176, sec. 1, effective July 12, 2006.