Mode of Program Participation
Performances and Arts
Participation Type
Performance
Presentation #1 Title
Floating Dancer: The Story of Robert Dotson, the Walking Step, and the Green Grass Cloggers
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Robert Dotson (May 13, 1923 - January 13, 2015) was an award-winning flatfoot dancer from Sugar Grove, just west of Boone, NC. The young, festival-hopping Green Grass Cloggers met him in 1978 through an acquaintance with a local band. Members of the GGCs deciphered and adapted Robert’s signature percussive dance step into what became known as the Walking Step, and the GGCs and later the Fiddle Puppets shared it through workshops and performances in several states and countries to introduce new audiences to flatfooting. For ASA 2017, I aim to present Floating Dancer: The Story of Robert Dotson, the Walking Step, and the Green Grass Cloggers, a film I co-produced with filmmaker M. Chad Smith in 2016. The film (approximately 20 minutes) features Robert at his kitchen table and on his porch casually discussing his thoughts on dance as he observed and participated in it through his 91 years, primarily in Western NC and East TN. Robert’s longtime friend Rodney Sutton, a member of the GGCs and FPs, connects the elements of the narrative, corrects the misnomer of “Tennessee Walking Step” to just “Walking Step,” and demonstrates the step itself. The film includes footage of Robert dancing in Fall 2014 a few months before he died, as well as in May 2013 on his 90th birthday and earlier that Spring at the ASA conference in Boone. The film is available on YouTube, but shown as part of a presentation at ASA, I would be present to answer session attendees’ questions.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Leanne E. Smith received an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College; serves on the boards of the Folk Arts Society of Greenville and North Carolina Folklore Society; is working on a manuscript about the Green Grass Cloggers; teaches in East Carolina University’s Department of English in Greenville, NC; writes articles about food, music, and dance; and is editor of the North Carolina Folklore Journal.
Floating Dancer: The Story of Robert Dotson, the Walking Step, and the Green Grass Cloggers
Robert Dotson (May 13, 1923 - January 13, 2015) was an award-winning flatfoot dancer from Sugar Grove, just west of Boone, NC. The young, festival-hopping Green Grass Cloggers met him in 1978 through an acquaintance with a local band. Members of the GGCs deciphered and adapted Robert’s signature percussive dance step into what became known as the Walking Step, and the GGCs and later the Fiddle Puppets shared it through workshops and performances in several states and countries to introduce new audiences to flatfooting. For ASA 2017, I aim to present Floating Dancer: The Story of Robert Dotson, the Walking Step, and the Green Grass Cloggers, a film I co-produced with filmmaker M. Chad Smith in 2016. The film (approximately 20 minutes) features Robert at his kitchen table and on his porch casually discussing his thoughts on dance as he observed and participated in it through his 91 years, primarily in Western NC and East TN. Robert’s longtime friend Rodney Sutton, a member of the GGCs and FPs, connects the elements of the narrative, corrects the misnomer of “Tennessee Walking Step” to just “Walking Step,” and demonstrates the step itself. The film includes footage of Robert dancing in Fall 2014 a few months before he died, as well as in May 2013 on his 90th birthday and earlier that Spring at the ASA conference in Boone. The film is available on YouTube, but shown as part of a presentation at ASA, I would be present to answer session attendees’ questions.
