The Green Grass Cloggers is a clogging team founded in 1971 by students at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.  Inspired by seeing traditional mountain-style clogging teams, but more influenced by older flatfoot and buck dancers met at fiddlers’ conventions, they developed an original, eclectic style which was a radical departure from the traditions of NC team clogging of the time.

Unlike the ‘big-set’ mountain square dance figures of the traditional freestyle clogging teams, the Green Grass Cloggers used choreography based on four-couple Western square dance figures, in short energetic routines, consciously  designed for audience appeal.  While the group’s footwork was synchronized, as in precision clogging, their free-spirited performances included head-high kicks and other unconventional steps.
 
Dressed in old-time calico dresses, blue jeans, and black shoes, their appearance contrasted with the clean-cut look of polyester and white tap shoes common to most other groups in the 1970s, making them a crowd favorite at the clogging competitions in which they danced. This popularity with audiences helped them win the title of World Champion Cloggers in both 1972 and 1974, at Fiddlers Grove, NC.

By 1974, with an established reputation as top-notched performers, the Green Grass Cloggers began to be invited to perform at major folk festivals throughout the United States and Canada. From 1977 until 1987, the "Road Team," which relocated to Asheville, NC, toured full-time nationally and internationally as a professional dance company, while the "Home Team" remained active in Greenville and throughout North Carolina. By the end of the 1970s, clogging groups inspired by the Green Grass Cloggers had formed in many places across the country. Overseas, the Green Grass Clogger-style was adopted by groups in Japan and in England, where currently it is the predominant style of ‘Appalachian’ clogging.

Today, both teams of the Green Grass Cloggers perform regularly throughout the year.  The Green Grass Cloggers is approaching its 40th year in 2011.  A reunion event involving both the home and road teams is in the works.

- Adapted from Phil Jamison’s piece in the Old Time Herald