| Murfreesboro’s own Cripple Creek Cloggers were met with a warm welcome in Italy. The group arrived in Italy Sunday morning to introduce their authentic Appalachian-style dancing to a new Italian audience at the 64th annual Sagra Del Mandorlo in Fiore (Festival of the Almond Blossoms), which started Jan. 31. “Sun continues to shine on the Rutherford County dancers and musicians, the only performing troupe in this folkloric festival of the almond blossoms from North America,” said Steve Cates, the group’s founder and director. Other groups at the festival represent Peru, Ecuador, Italy, Korea, Poland, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Hungary. In all 14 different countries are represented at the festival, Cates said. “Yesterday and this morning there were parades of all groups through the winding streets where the delegations, playing their music and wearing their native costumes, were greeted by thousands who lined the route,” Cates said. Groups of dancers from all nationalities performed in the street and on small stages during the parade, he said. “There is great response to the American flag, which precedes us, and many welcoming cheers and smiles and often cries of ‘Obama’ with a thumbs up,” he continued, adding the cloggers will give out U.S. flags and Tennessee pins to everyone they meet. The Cripple Creek Cloggers practice a uniquely southern American style of dance. The Appalachian-style of square dancing with a clogging step developed in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina from traditions brought by early English settlers to the region. “The earliest settlers from England brought with them parts of songs, dances and stories from their Mother country, and these were formed into a new tradition in the hills and valleys of this region, which includes our own state of Tennessee,” Cates explained in a previous interview. The group will perform this uniquely American dance style to audiences in the tens of thousands during the weeklong event and also offer an official exchange of gifts from the group to local officials. The troupe will present Sicilian and Italian officials with handmade, old-fashioned bonnets and other craft items. The Cripple Creek Cloggers will return to Europe in the summer for a tour of festivals in France and Spain after their hometown festival, the 27th annual International Folkfest on June 14-21. Dance troupes from Germany and Belgium, and possibly two other groups from Turkey, Slovenia, Poland, Sicily, Israel or England, will dance at 2009’s Folkfest. The Cripple Creek Cloggers meet at 7 p.m. most Tuesdays at The Vine, 118 West Vine St. Membership is open to all in the teen years and above, who are willing to preserve this traditional form of dance. For more information about Cripple Creek Cloggers, contact Steve Cates at 896-3559 or appdancer@aol.com. Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. |
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