Chieftain Clogger

For my body movement analysis I would like to share the Chieftains event I went to at Boettcher Concert Hall on March 15, before Saint Patrick’s Day. In case you didn’t know, the Chieftains are a traditional Irish band and have been together since 1962 so to say they have been together awhile is an understatement. As you can image part of the band has since passed on and I saw only two of the original members because the third remaining member had become ill. Check the group out here https://www.facebook.com/thechieftains. What I liked about the original members of the band is they still had strong vocal power and when one of them did an old Irish folk song he stood like a planted tree and sang. His feet never moved once and I realized he was a master at breath control. I was impressed because he could hold notes and long breaths with no cracks and it just seemed effortless to him.

During the performance some of the songs would have cloggers to go along with and add to the music. What I found fascinating about one of the clogging dancers was that he looked to be about 6’3’’and he clogged in levies and a western type sports coat! What a fascinating sight it was to watch a tall man clog with feet of fire. The three other dancers in the show were compact in size and nature so when he danced he towered over everyone and stood out even more, not because he was tall, because he was good.

I think that height came with a price however because I started to think about how much more energy the taller dancer had to use in order to do something as simple as a hop or skip or jump and then I multiplied the energy he was expending by how quickly a clog dancers feet have to move. Being a taller dancer he also had to control his up down body plain with more effort and precision than the other dancers. If you think about dancing while your arms are folded behind you and your chest sticks out, that is how his body moved. I couldn’t help but wonder how he survived dancing so long because the amount of strain he was placing on his joints actually took me out of his performance at times. Then I assumed he probably took a lot of Advil.