American Team Clogging as Pilgrimage and Heritage Ritual

• Other Authors: Howard, James Andrew (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Dance
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-3722

This thesis investigates ritual expressions of heritage and identity within a dance community, American Team Clogging. The scope of this thesis includes competitive team clogging which emerged through a spontaneous fusion of regional "big set" square dancing and improvised percussive footwork (otherwise performed solo) during a square dance competition at Asheville, North Carolina's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in 1928 (originally known as the Rhododendron Festival). This study reveals how Appalachian heritage, especially Western North Carolina (WNC) "folk" dance, is accessed and interpreted through team clogging on local,regional, and national levels in the United States. Using Victor (and Edith) Turner's theories on communitas, ritual performance, and pilgrimage, this thesis demonstrates the function of team clogging, and its pilgrimage systems maintained through a network of sanctioned clogging competitions known as American Clogging Hall of Fame, in leveling differences of participants—diverse in expression of ethnic and religious heritage and/or identity. Through clogging rituals, team cloggers are united in communitas, the greatest width of commonality. This thesis demonstrates how unity is generated and maintained among diverse participants through interpretation of symbols, rituals, and myth in this American dance culture. This thesis demonstrates that diverse cloggers literally clog away their differences. === A Thesis submitted to the Department of Dance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. === Spring Semester, 2009. === March 30, 2009. === Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, Dance, Appalachian Studies, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Western North Carolina, American Heritage, Folk Dancing, Dance Competitions, Folk Festivals, Authenticity, Clogging, Square Dancing, Tourism, Victor Turner, Pilgrimage, Asheville, American Clogging Hall of Fame, Protestantism, Ritual Process, Communitas, Southern Studies === Includes bibliographical references. === Tricia Young, Professor Directing Thesis; Jennifer Atkins, Committee Member; Patricia Phillips, Committee Member.