All classes are in the community center gym. Please be on time, with your shoes on and your taps tight. Parents are welcome to watch from the bleachers, quietly.

Beginners start every September and move into their age group in January, when they know their basics. This year's beginner class started Monday, September 13. You can still join through the first week of October. After that, wait for next September, or ask me about catching up.

No classes the week of Thanksgiving or between Christmas and New Year's. If the schools close for snow, we close too.

Every clogging step is built out of a few little motions, and once you know those, you can learn anything. Here's what we teach the first month. Teachers in other places sometimes use different names for the same thing, so don't be surprised if you visit another team and they call it something else. Practice in the kitchen. The linoleum loves it.

Step. Put your weight down on the ball of your foot, so the toe tap sounds. That's it. Everything starts here.

Double toe. Brush the ball of one foot forward so the tap strikes the floor, then brush it back so it strikes again. Two sounds, quick, and no weight on that foot. Keep it small and keep it under you. The little ones learn it as "scuff-scuff."

Rock step. Rock back onto the ball of one foot, just behind the other one, for a quick moment, then step down onto the other foot. Two sounds. It's how you change feet.

Basic. The step everything else is built on: a double toe and a step on one foot, then a rock step. Five sounds, two beats of music. Do it again starting on the other foot. When you can do basics up and down the gym for a whole song without looking at your feet, you're a clogger.

Triple. A double toe and a step, another double toe and a step, then a rock step. Three beats. It's a basic with an extra piece in the middle, and it's the first step that makes people in the bleachers say "ooh."

Chug. With your weight on one foot, scoot it forward a few inches and drop your heel to the floor, so the heel tap sounds. It's a pushing, driving sound, and we use it to move forward and to put an accent on the beat. Chug too big and you'll slide into the person in front of you. Ask the Teens.

Heel. Drop your heel to the floor with your weight on the ball of the foot. One sound.

Kick and stomp. You know these. Kick from the knee, not the hip. Stomp with the whole foot, and mean it.

Stay on the balls of your feet with your knees soft. Locked knees will wear you out in one song and hurt your back besides.
Small is better than big. The best cloggers look like they're barely moving.
Listen to the music. Count it out loud if you have to. Clogging is music with your feet, and if you're off the beat it doesn't matter how fancy the step is.
Slow it down until you get it right, then speed it up.
Bring water. Clogging is the best exercise I know of, and you will sweat.
Don't give up the first month. Everybody's feet feel like bricks at first. Mine did.