Images courtesy of Anya Tkachenko

The excitement was high on September 3rd as the High Country Conservatory of Dance competed in the National Clogging Compeition in Nashville, Tennessee. By the time they would leave, Fossil Ridge freshman Anya Tkachenko would be carrying the national title in acapella-style clogging.

Tkachenko’s clogging career began when she was four,“We were in Old Town, and they were performing and passing out free flyers, so as soon as we were old enough to join we did,” She had to audition to get on to the competitive group, which practices three times a week. Two out of three days they practice for four hours, and the other one they practice for an hour and a half. Yet if they are training for a competition, they will practice everyday for two hours. The team gets to perform in multiple different categories, such as acappella, traditional, show, exhibition, and line.

According to Clogon.com, clogging originated in the seventeenth century in the Appalachian Mountains when the folk dances of the Irish, Scottish, English, Dutch, and Germans combined. Normally, clogging is accompanied by music, but in the acapella style, competitors must rely on the sound of their foot fall to impress the judges. The judges turn their chairs around, so their hearing is the only method of judging the dancers on their performance. While Tkachenko does perform in the other categories of clogging, such as traditional, show, exhibition, and line, she professes, “Acapella has always been my best.”  

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