Welsh Clog Dance

[Cogidubnus]

yes...a two-way gag, but I don't think I'll bother as the Cock's loss is Gareth's gain...bit like something out of HE Bates that....
Dave

[Robert Linford]

Dave, this is a clog dance not a Kellogg dance.

[Sam Flynn]

Isn't it a Celtic Cornflake?

Oddly enough, Dave, you might well find a "ceiliog" on certain cornflakes packets, as it means cockerel. This means that, for some reason, the Welsh word for grasshopper - ceiliog y rhedyn - means "cockerel of the bracken"... or that diminutive of cockerel which I haven't used in case it makes people snigger.

When I saw that I thought that 'ceiliog' must be a form of 'ceilidh' but on checking found that it's not.

All the same, full marks for thinking that way.

[Robert Linford]

IIRC, in 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe, there's a description of how a rare event occurred at an (African) village : a swarm of locusts settled there and the inhabitants feasted for days.

[Cogidubnus]

Isn't it a Celtic Cornflake?

[Robert Linford]

When I saw that I thought that 'ceiliog' must be a form of 'ceilidh' but on checking found that it's not. Doh!

[Sam Flynn]

I wonder whether eating these little critters boosts dancing proficiency?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48259397

Actually, one of the Welsh folk-dances performed in the clip I posted earlier is called Ceiliog y Rhedyn, or "The Grasshopper", which the kids used to love performing. The dancers flap their elbows to represent the grasshopper's shorter forelegs, and the boys periodically crouch and spring into the air to mimic the insects' leaps. Snippet below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt_3...youtu.be&t=597

[Cogidubnus]

This was all new to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (I also looked up the recipe for ¨Welsh cakes¨. Will be trying it.) I am still working on this link.......I finally made it work. The youtube mark that looks like l, can be I, l, or 1. I finally guessed right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGRn1XDYIVc&t=391s

I was surprised around 13:00 that girls also did some of those athletic moves. I was a Ukrainian dancer and females did not do those moves though women did have some spectacular solos. My solo was turning many turns on one leg, one after the other in the Hopak. I was surprised to see the athletic activity in Welsh dance but I think this is the first time I have seen Welsh dance.

Hi Anna

Clog dancing used to be much more widespread - here is a brief extract from a BBC4 programme about a guy who sought to reintroduce clogging by means of a somewhat hastily trained, (in some cases), flashmob...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtESUuA2gTc&t=21s

Cheers

Dave

[Anna Morris]

I wonder whether eating these little critters boosts dancing proficiency?


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48259397

Maybe. Insects are said to be very nutritious and pound for pound there are more insects on the planet than many other life forms. Thanks, as always, for the inspiring information.

[Robert Linford]

I wonder whether eating these little critters boosts dancing proficiency?


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48259397

[Anna Morris]

My nephews' clog-dancing group represented Wales, winning the Junior World Folk Dance Championships in 2009 and 2011. I couldn't find a clip with my nephews in it, but here's one of their group entertaining the tourists at Palma, Mallorca in 2011:

https://youtu.be/bt_3pSZrUME?t=546

That is great! I had never heard of Welsh clog dancing before yesterday.

There is a kind of clog dancing in the Appalachian area of the U.S. That area was settled by Scots, Irish and probably Welsh. I once suggested the dance style was Celtic in origin and an expert told me I was all wrong, the American clog dance is totally American. I think I was right to begin with.

I have performed some Irish Celtic dance but am almost ashamed to admit it since it was a choreographed effort which did not have all the intricacies of actual Celtic dance which I now study on youtube.

(A couple years ago I cracked a vertebra lifting my 80 pound dog. My back hurt a lot but the local, highly government-ized medical system said, ¨We don´t do anything for the spine.¨ Not even X-rays? ¨You have to go out of town.¨ I was snowed in and had other reasons I could not travel so I did ballet exercises with youtube videos and got better. I was shocked to find out I had actually cracked a vertebra. All this was in Oregon BTW. Idaho medical is still real good.)

[Sam Flynn]

How was often forced to stand in a corner, and to this day his head is triangular.

Reminds me of an old Welsh miners' joke:

Dai and his son are having a drink in the pub when in walks a man with a very flat head and enormous cauliflower ears, whereupon the son dissolves into a fit of the giggles.

"Don't laugh," said Dai, "That's Will Jenkins, a true hero"

"Ow's that, dad?"

"One day down the mine, it started to collapse, and Will there held the roof up with his head while everyone escaped. That's why his head's so flat."

"Oh, I see. But what about the cauliflower ears?"

"He got those when his workmates hammered him into position."

[Gary Barnett]

We had alternate Country Dancing and Music and Movement sessions at Infants School.

[Robert Linford]

"We're Gareth's nephews - you know, the Yee-ha man."

[Robert Linford]

How was often forced to stand in a corner, and to this day his head is triangular.