Williamston hosts clogging championships

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The Williamston Municipal Center was filled with the sound of music and metal taps in the hallways and on stage Saturday. Hundreds of cloggers and spectators from all over South Carolina and North Carolina were in Williamston for the 2013 Southern Junction Clogging Championships which were held in the Municipal Center Auditorium.

rsz_dsc_2341resClogging is a type of folk dance in which the dancer’s footwear is used to create percussive rhythms by striking the heel or toe, which have metal taps, against a floor or each other. It can be combined with almost any type music, as was the case during the competition.

The competition was sanctioned by America’s Clogging Hall of Fame and first and second place winners were halfway toward receiving an invitation to compete in the 2013 America’s Clogging Hall of Fame World Championships in Maggie Valley in October.

Awards were presented for solo, duo, short duet, team, freestyle, Acapella Solo and flatfoot and other categories.

Director Gwen Davis of Piedmont coordinated the event.

The Southern Junction Clogging Team was formed in 1995. Since then, the team has traveled extensively representing the Upstate of South Carolina at Shows, Festivals, Pageants, Telethons, and Competitions. The present members range in age from 3 to 36 and travel as much as 300 miles to attend practice.

Southern Junction has competed and amassed thousands of individual, duo/duet, and team awards over the past decade.

Line, Line Formations, Exhibition, Show, Precision, Hoedown, Southern Appalachian, Traditional Line, and Smooth are some of the categories that SJC has participated in.

Currently, their dancers are preparing for the America’s Clogging Hall of Fame Invitational.

The ACHF Nationals are held each October in Maggie Valley, NC where teams from all over come together to vie for the prestigious National Titles.