Our fantastic tutors and dances:

Toby Bennett

Toby Bennett is a dancer and dance teacher who started clog dancing whilst at University when he was lucky enough to do classes with some of the greats including Sam Sherry, Pat tracey and Mrs Marhoff. He won the Westmorland Clog Dance Championship and Stepping Contest in Derby (SCID) at the original Dancing England. Toby later trained professionally and worked as a dancer and dance educator for many years and in various forms of dance - he now focuses once more on clog step dancing. He performs solo and with folk band Stepling, runs clog dance classes where he lives in Derbyshire, and is in demand as a workshop tutor. During the pandemic he has taught a number of workshops and courses on Zoom!

Toby's Improver's (Dotted) Hornpipe (Improver Level)
Toby wrote this dance as a way to build dotted hornpipe technique. It starts with some fundamental steps and develops some more challenging step combinations and patterns as you go along. A bit of a North East flavour with steps inspired by some collected from Johnson Ellwood (1899-1977).

Jon Davison

Jon Davison has danced with Camden Clog since 2008 and learned Pat Tracey's steps from those entrusted with the family tradition. He has also been a musician since age 4, with a special interest in folk traditions of the British Isles and North America, and currently the accordion half of the duo Rhythm of the Floor with Ru Rose, also of Camden Clog. His day job is as a clown performer and researcher.

Pat Tracey's "B" Routine (Intermediate Level)
The "B" Routine is a lively dance to perform and to watch, and a real audience pleaser with its showy steps. It's a step up from the beginners' "A" Routine, introducing more intricate steps like the "1920s", "Jump to the Corners" and "Sailors' Hornpipe". Devised by Pat as a teaching dance, it still works well as a performance dance either solo or choreographed for a team. The style is of Old Lancashire Heel and Toe Clog Dancing, developed by the cotton weavers of East Lancashire since the time of the industrial revolution, a lat-footed style of dancing in which the heel is used as much as the toe to make the sounds. The outward circling of the foot in the basic steps is characteristic of this style. The rhythms and movements of the cotton looms are reflected in the steps.

Melanie Barber & Mike Adamson

Melanie started clog dancing in 1979, learning from Sam Sherry and Pat Tracey, and collecting steps from Bill Gibbons and Bert Bowden, and has been teaching clog since the early 80's. She was a founder Lancashire Walloper, then a member of Camden Clog, and now dances with Strictly Clog. Mike learnt to play the melodeon in 2006 to play for Hammersmith Morris, and started playing for clog and North West Morris in 2007. Melanie & Mike formed Three's a Crowd in 2014 having started to do solo bookings.

Sam Sherry's Original Waltz (Intermediate/Advanced Level)
Sam's original waltz shares four steps with his 'easy' (aka 'walkies') version, which he devised when some of his pupils found the original too difficult - as the waltz was only the second routine you learnt at his weekly classes this is hardly surprising! The original steps include moves such as American (aka Dan Leno) rolls, back slices and a clog moon walk. It can easily be danced alongside the 'easy' version as the differing steps compliment each other, but knowing the 'easy' version isn't a prerequisite as Melanie will teach all the steps.

Matt Norman

Matt Norman is one of a very small number of people teaching Dartmoor Stepdance. He teaches every year at the Dartmoor Festival, he has also taught at many other folk festivals, at City Clickers workshop day and was invited to Massachusetts in 2019 to teach at Pinewoods Folk Camp. His teaching style is relaxed and clear. Matt Norman is three times Dartmoor Stepdance champion and dances in his band Gadarene.

Dartmoor Stepdance (Mixed Level)
Dartmoor stepdance is a percussive style that was popular across Devon but only survived in one small corner of Dartmoor. The great meolodeon player Bob Cann realised the tradition was on the brink of dying out and started the Dartmoor Folk Festival to help preserve it. Forty something years later the festival is still going strong as is the stepdance tradition. It is characterised by it's fairly formal structure and that it is performed on a small board, either 15 or 18 inches. For the workshop you will need hard soled shoes.