Lilac City Cloggers Tap Into First Place Win At Variety Show
The phone rang during rehearsal. It was a Lilac Variety Show official with good news - Lori Peckham’s teenage cloggers were invited to perform in the show.
She thought they’d be ecstatic. Instead, the teens were melancholy.
“We wanted the little kids to make it, too,” one clogger finally said, saddened that the younger class wouldn’t be performing.
That’s the sort of closeness and cooperation that grows in Peckham’s Lilac City Cloggers classes. Their warmth shines from the stage.
Earlier, the younger kids, ages 7-9, snagged first place and second high score in Pasco at the statewide Dance Dimension competition.
The senior students, ages 12-20, captured first place in the Lilac Variety Show, making all the cloggers proud.
The annual variety show features local amateur acts. This year, 60 acts performed at the audition, just 20 made the final cut. Adults and children display a range of talents from magic to jitterbugging. The cloggers captured the judges’ hearts.
“They just wowed them. They came out with major energy and nailed the routine,” said Peckham.
The group has been together two years.
“How could you NOT like the routine?” asked Peckham, as energetic and lively as her students.
The cloggers dress in crisp shirts, cummerbunds and bow ties, the girls in skirts, guys in slacks.
The first number was a jazzy arrangement called “Megablast,” followed by “Pick Up The Fiddle,” a more precise routine with close formations and partner work.
“Feet are just flying, it’s very high energy,” said Peckham.
Even the audience can’t help tapping their toes.
Clogging, an Appalachian folk dance, looks a bit like countrified tap dance.
With roots in Irish and Canadian step dancing, and influences from German folk, African American and Native American cultures, it’s the melting pot of the dance world.
It has the same roots as tap, but tap became more urbanized,” says Peckham. “Clogging retained its true dance form.”
Their newest routine is an Irish step dance. At the moment it’s being done a cappella - without music.
“Unless I find some killer Irish fiddling music that I really like,” Peckham said.
Both the senior and junior Lilac City Cloggers spend almost as much time performing as they do practicing.
They appeared at several elementary schools during “Imagination Celebration” week in April, and have been invited to perform for a second year at the Riverfront Park summer-season kickoff June 14. The cloggers will also return to the Spokane Interstate Fair in September
“They are fabulous,” said Dale Larsen, special events coordinator for the park.
“It’s a very positive show, they take a lot of pride in their performance - and they’re good.”
Peckham has been clogging for about eight years.
Her Spokane tap dance teacher, Joni Link, encouraged Peckham to teach clogging. She started with a dozen students, and now has 50 clogging across the hardwood floor of the Five Mile Grange Hall.
She takes pride in their accomplishments, but gives her students all the credit.
“My kids are very, very good,” Peckham says.
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