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Clogs
and a Creative Crossroads Appalachian clogging and modern dance may not seem like natural partners, but that hasn't stopped Kathryn Eurich from fusing the two. Her new company, aptly titled Crossroads Dance Project, merges the hard-hitting percussion of hard-shoe dancing with the choreographic freedom of contemporary dance. The Arlington-based ensemble makes it s debut performance this weekend at the Gunston Arts Center. Morris was struck by the infectious music of clogging she discovered at a folk festival last year. "The rhythms were so driving and the sound was so intense," recalls Morris. "There was this one guy dancing, and I couldn't figure out what he was doing--it wasn't like anything I'd seen before. I found out it was clogging, and right away I had the idea of putting modern dance with it." Appalachian clogging and modern dance may not seem like natural partners, but that hasn't stopped Kathryn Eurich from fusing the two. Her new company, aptly titled Crossroads Dance Project, merges the hard-hitting percussion of hard-shoe dancing with the choreographic freedom of contemporary dance. The Arlington-based ensemble makes it s debut performance this weekend at the Gunston Arts Center. Morris was struck by the infectious music of clogging she discovered at a folk festival last year. "The rhythms were so driving and the sound was so intense," recalls Morris. "There was this one guy dancing, and I couldn't figure out what he was doing--it wasn't like anything I'd seen before. I found out it was clogging, and right away I had the idea of putting modern dance with it." She was further inspired when she ventured down to the tiny town of Floyd, VA, where clogging often draws the residents together. "It was like going back in a time wary," Morris says. "There were people dancing in the streets. I stayed all night, learned some footwork, and started to study clogging and flatfooting." She gathered together five other modern and ballet trained dancers to mix it all up, borrowing the quick foot work of the traditional dance forms and adding the more liberal upper body movements of modern dance. Morris also approached one of the most prominent names in percussive dance: Footworks, the Annapolis-based touring group headed by Eileen Carson. Footworks, which performed in the London production of the step-dance spectacle Riverdance, will dance with Crossroads Saturday, along with the Footworks Band of local and Tennessee musicians. "This was the challenge of my like, to do two things together," says Morris. "In its own form, clogging is very exciting. But I'd like to take it to another level." |