Clogging, Tap, and Irish Dance: What’s the Difference?
My lifelong love of percussive dance stems from a very specific moment back in the early 90’s, when VCRs were at the height of their popularity and Blockbuster was still a thing. A commercial on TV held me captive as 30 fleet-footed dancers stomped in perfect time not only with violins and drums but each other as well, their legs flying rapidly to make their toes and shoes an instrument of themselves. In excitement, I insisted my mother enroll me in a tap class.
The commercial was for Riverdance.
With the spread of the Internet decades later, I eventually learned that what I had believed to be ‘tap dance’ was in fact a different style altogether, ‘Irish step-dance’. Still, there are enough similarities between tap, Irish dance, and Irish dance’s more direct descendant ‘clogging’ that it’s not hard to see how a seven-year-old might conflate them. The most recognizable forms of all three styles use taps on their shoes and require some pretty intense movement on the part of the dancer. To any untrained eyes and ears, they might very well appear to be one and the same.
So…what’s the difference?
Irish Step-Dance (Or “Irish dance”)
Of the three styles, Irish dance is the oldest, and — as the name would suggest — originated in Ireland. Clogging was partially inspired by it, so it’s only natural the two would have quite a bit in common: both are typically done in groups, both use the heels more heavily than tap dance, and both are typically done to the downbeat of a song.
However, that’s where the similarities end. Irish dance uses far different foot movements than either clogging or tap. An Irish dancer is literally almost always on his or her toes, which is part of what enables them to move so quickly. This style also has a lot more jumps and leaps than either other practice, and not moving one’s arms is a much stricter rule in Irish dance than it is in clogging: there are actually specific guidelines dictating where to hold your arms in relation to your body, how high to lift your elbows when holding hands with other dancers, and even what positions your hands and your fingers should be in when placed on your hips! (Now, this might sound restrictive, and it is…but it’s all part of the charm: having that much restriction on their arms means more focus is devoted to their fancy footwork!)
The easiest way to distinguish an Irish dancer from a clogger is to take a quick look at the shoes: an Irish dancer’s hard shoes are heavier than the average clogging or tap shoe, with eight taps on each (two on the left, two on the right, two on the bottom, one on the front, and one on the back), as opposed to four on clogging shoes. The taps of an Irish hard shoe are also made of fiberglass as opposed to metal, which means the steps themselves sound much different from those of the other two.
Clogging
When people think of “Irish dance”, their minds tend to leap to “clogging” (which is incorrect), but they might also leap to “Riverdance” (flashier than most Irish step dance, but an accurate representation of the discipline itself). And when people say “clogging”, minds tend to leap to “Irish dance” (again, incorrect), or…clogging. This term, however, can encompass one of several other styles.
While Irish dance has chosen to stay closer to its roots and is still mostly in two camps (soft shoe and hard shoe, both of which are traditional), the world of clogging has branched off and evolved into a few different sub-styles of its own, such as “Appalachian clogging”, “buck dancing” and “flat-footing”. Some sources use these terms interchangeably, while others insist they are their own discipline. Of the many different varieties in existence, Appalachian is the oldest, and from which all other styles were developed.
As mentioned in the previous section, clogging itself partially developed from Irish dance…and like the students of that discipline, cloggers also tend to dance in groups and dance on the downbeat of a song. However, there are some distinct features of clogging that separate it from both Irish and tap dance.
Of the three styles, clogging is more flat-footed — “flat-footed clogging” notwithstanding — and while there are jumps in their routines, they are not as frequent or as stylized as those you’ll see in Irish dance. Cloggers do not have to hold their arms as rigidly as Irish dancers, nor are they required to point their toes.
Like the Irish hard shoe, clogging shoes are specialized and come in a variety of styles. Not all dance clogs have metal taps, but when they do it can be hard to distinguish them from tap shoes (and some cloggers wear those, too!). Most styles not only look similar to each other, but to the untrained ear, they may sound rather similar as well.
At first glance, clogging shoes appear to only have two taps; in actuality, they have four: one is attached directly to the bottom of the heel and another to bottom of the toe, and a second tap is then loosely attached to those. Appropriately, these are called ‘hinged taps’, or sometimes ‘jingle taps’, after the sounds that make clogging distinct. In yet another variation, some of these shoes may also have what’s called a ‘buck tap’, which is a flat metal piece that comes just over the front tip of the shoe, so that the clogger can go up on the very tips of their toes as tap, Irish dancers, and ballerinas do.
Tap Dance
Of these three styles, tap dance is the youngest. Unlike clogging, which was developed primarily in rural areas, tap dance is a distinctly urban art form: it developed in primarily in New York City as people fused the sounds of African music with those of the Irish and British percussive styles. As mentioned in the previous section, tap dance might look and sound similar to clogging, but the styles are distinct from one another and there are some significant differences between them.
Unlike Irish dancer and cloggers, tappers tend to dance on the melody of a song rather than the downbeat, and while a tap dancer definitely uses their heels, they do not rely on them quite as heavily as Irish dancers and cloggers do. Tappers also often dance solo; cloggers and Irish dancers more often dance in groups.
Just as Irish dance and clogging have specialized shoes that are essential to their craft, so does tap. The taps on tap shoes are also made of metal as opposed to fiberglass, but unlike clogging shoes, they only have the two: a single tap on the toe and a single tap on the heel. Also unique to tap shoes is the ability to change the sound of their taps: by loosening or tightening the screws that hold the pieces in place, a dancer can deepen the sound. Irish hard shoes’ and cloggers’ taps are attached to the soles in a fixed position and thus do not have this capability.
In Conclusion…
…though these three percussive styles of dance all share some history and even some important features, they also have characteristics that make them distinct from one another. Each is an amazing blend of tradition and innovation — literally living forms of art!
Bibliography:
Bedinghaus, Treva. “What Is the Difference Between Tap Dancing and Clogging?” Liveabout.Com, 23 Aug. 2017, www.liveabout.com/difference-between-tap-dancing-and- clogging-1007401.
“Buck and Wing |Flatfoot|Pigeon Wing|Wings|Pistolets.” Sonny Watson’s Streetswing.Com, www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3buckw1.htm. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020.
“Clogging: How It’s Different from Tap.” Dance Spirit, 31 May 2017, www.dancespirit.com/ clogging-how-its-different-from-tap-2326037218.html.
Junebugbayer. “Tap Shoes vs. Clogging and Irish Step.” Art and Adventure for Ape Conservation, 19 Jan. 2020, junebugbayer.blog/2018/07/04/tap-shoes-vs-irish-step-shoes-vs- appalacian-clogging-shoes-demystified.
“What Is Clogging? — Emerald City Cloggers Seattle, Washington — Clogging Dance Lessons.” Emerald City Cloggers, www.emeraldcitycloggers.com/clogging-history.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2020.
