FROM FIESTA TO FONTANA

Director Linda Carolan writes:

Fiesta soon became a blur of clogging performances. Some of our favorite events included the beloved King William Fair where we joined forces with the fabulous Tennessee Valley Authority. Another fun show, German atmosphere included, was Beethoven Fiesta. In this photo, Tommy Lew and Kathy Hankins cheerfully demonstrate the German influence on clogging.

Earth Day was still another “interesting” performance. The stage was of the flat bed truck variety, but this one had a METAL surface. We sounded like a thundering rocket blasting off.

From the banks of the San Antonio River, we headed northeast when we turned our faces toward our old stompin’ grounds. A tradition started “many moons ago” was an annual trek to Fontana Village, North Carolina. Rusty and I taught at the Fontana Smoky Mountain Clogging Jamboree, one of the early workshops held there, when a young dancer from West Virginia named Jeff Driggs happened to be attending. Over twenty years later, the Fontana tradition had been revived and Jeff, now a well-known national instructor, invited us to teach at the Fontana Clogging Jamboree, hosted by himself and the illustrious Naomi Fleetwood-Pyle. The incomparable Jeff Driggs, who elicits mirth and side-splitting humor with great ease, has been teaching clogging, calling old time mountain figures, researching the history of clogging, and digging up good jokes for many years now. It was a real pleasure to be on staff, once again, with some of the finest instructors in the country. In the photo below Naomi, Linda, and Jeff pose at the Jamboree.

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