Fiddlin' and Square Dancing Are Back
Newspaper article (1971) written by caller Betty Casey, describing the start of the Green Grass Cloggers.
Percussive clogging in choreographed routines had been made popular at the Mountain Dance and Music Festival started by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1928. The Green Grass Cloggers, a group of young dancers coming from the counterculture of the 1970s, took those steps (and others they created) and inserted them into square dance figures that they learned from working with Casey.
In the fall of 1971, Dudley Culp and Toni Jordan enrolled in a square dance class at East Carolina University, and they met Betty Casey. Here's what Dudley said about her: "John and Betty Casey moved from Texas to Greenville, NC for John to work at Voice of America. Ralph Steele and John Casey became friends, and Ralph called me to tell me about John's wife, Betty, who was a retired square dance caller. Betty taught us lots of dance figures. She had a large record collection of square dance calls. Betty would sing the calls and put in patter and rhymes, which helped the dancers keep time with music and let them know how much of a musical phrase was needed for a dance move. She unfortunately did not stay with the group for long."
A history of the Green Grass Cloggers can be found on their website. Some of the original members of the group still dance with the team.
Subjects: Southern Appalachian - general
Tags: Betty Casey, clogging, Green Grass Cloggers, Greenville, North Ca
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Soco Gap Dancers |
| This Item | is related to | Item: North Carolina Cloggers |
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Percussive clogging in choreographed routines had been made popular at the Mountain Dance and Music Festival started by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1928. The Green Grass Cloggers, a group of young dancers coming from the counterculture of the 1970s, took those steps (and others they created) and inserted them into square dance figures that they learned from working with Casey.
In the fall of 1971, Dudley Culp and Toni Jordan enrolled in a square dance class at East Carolina University, and they met Betty Casey. Here's what Dudley said about her: "John and Betty Casey moved from Texas to Greenville, NC for John to work at Voice of America. Ralph Steele and John Casey became friends, and Ralph called me to tell me about John's wife, Betty, who was a retired square dance caller. Betty taught us lots of dance figures. She had a large record collection of square dance calls. Betty would sing the calls and put in patter and rhymes, which helped the dancers keep time with music and let them know how much of a musical phrase was needed for a dance move. She unfortunately did not stay with the group for long."
A history of the Green Grass Cloggers can be found on their website. Some of the original members of the group still dance with the team.