ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Danielle Plimpton started clogging when she was a kid and continued clogging through college at Mars Hill University.
“This is the only place that I applied and came to school here, clogged and still here,” Plimpton said.
She started directing the Bailey Mountain Cloggers the same year she graduated and hasn’t stopped. “I love it. I don’t think there’s anything else to say except this is something I love and it’s a job I love. So do what you love, I guess,” Plimpton said.
The group dances to a range of music genres from traditional clogging music to hip hop. Most of these dancers have been dancing from a very young age.
The team comes from “all different backgrounds of dance, all different backgrounds of clogging. But for the most part, most of them, probably 98% of them came to school at Mars Hill for this team,” Plimpton said.
One of those dancers is William Holcomb. He’s a freshman who’s been clogging since he was a toddler and came here on scholarship.
“I don’t know who was more excited, me or my mom. My mom was so excited just cause this was something that was never really going to happen, until Danielle reached out to me,” Holcomb said.
Senior Keyshawn Sanders only started clogging his freshman year. “Everybody was helping me and was so nice. I just stayed in here, all hours of the night practicing until I got where I wanted to be,” Sanders said.
Plimpton says many clogging teams don’t do traditional dances anymore, they clog to contemporary music. But here, they’re trying to keep the roots of the dance alive.
“There’s a lot of older teams that still do the Southern Appalachian clogging that they’re doing right now. But we’re one of the younger teams that do it,” Plimpton said. “We’re trying to spread it through these guys that will eventually be teachers one day and have their own team. We’re hoping they keep it alive that way.”
People can watch the Bailey Mountain Cloggers at Mars Hill University’s 50th Anniversary Spring Concert in the Moore Auditorium April 26-28.