What is it that makes people want to kick up their heels and dance? Why does the combination of rhythm, beat and melody makes toes tap and bodies sway almost of their own accord?
Whatever it is, it crosses all cultures.
Dance is universal, said Shawnda Bishop. If you travel the world, participating in folk-dance festivals — as she has done — you soon come to realize that although individual dances may be very different, they convey the same basic feelings.
"Israeli dances are very free-spirited," Bishop said. "The Georgians are more militaristic. The Hungarians are very intricate and precise. But such love and spirit and pride come through. And you all get together, and no one speaks the same language, and yet you can communicate through dance."
All folk art, she said, "comes from the heart. And that's what touches you."
Bishop is director of an international folk ensemble called Clog America, based in West Valley, which is representing the United States on two European tours this summer. The first group left May 16; the second leaves on June 18.
During the two tours, Clog America is participating in nine international dance festivals in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic. In all, there will be 40 performances in more than 20 cities and towns throughout Europe.
A highlight will be a "clog-off" on June 20 in Prague. Clog America dancers and their bluegrass band Albion will "duel" with the Czech Republic's most popular country band, Zelenaci, along with the Caramella Cloggers of Prague, in a evening of alternating performances that will be covered by Czech radio and television.
"It's quite an honor for us," said Bishop.
The two tours will involve 46 dancers, 16 musicians and three American Indian and Polynesian dance specialists.
After this summer, Clog America, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, will have participated in more than 30 international festivals. "And we've turned down that many more invitations because of time and money constraints," said Bishop. "We're known more on an international basis than we are locally."
It's a great way to spend the summer, said Bonnie Romney, assistant director of the group, especially if you love music and dance. And, love is the operative word; everyone involved with Clog America is in it for the love of dance.
Dancers audition to get into the touring groups, but they are not paid as professionals. Groups must pay their own way to festivals. Once there, festival organizers will provide housing, usually at a local school or with host families.
"We have some corporate sponsors," said Bishop. But most of their funding comes from private donations. They have formed a non-profit umbrella group called The Worldwide Association of Performing Artists, so contributions are tax-deductible.
"I can't say enough about all the volunteer effort that goes into something like this," she said.
The dancers are mostly high school and college age; they give up one Saturday a month for practices. But those are often 10-hour rehearsals, said Romney. "Sometimes, they walk out of here dead."
Most of them are from the West Valley area, although one comes from Kanab (she's going on both tours, so she comes twice a month), one from Wyoming, one is going to college in Santa Fe, N.M., several come from Utah County.
But they come because they love it. And most have been dancing for years. "I got into it because my mom made me," said Corban Smith. "But I fell in love with it, and I've done it ever since." He likes the athleticism, Smith said, and the exercise and sense of competition.
Mike Kemp has been dancing for 14 years. He had sisters who were cloggers, and he thought it looked like fun. He likes the social aspect, the friendships that develop through dance, not just with fellow dancers but all over the world. "It's a chance to go see other cultures, to meet different people and see how they live and how open they are to us," said Kemp, who has been on five different Clog America tours.
It sounds kind of cliched to say they are promoting world peace, said Nate Keller, "and yet, you meet people from all over, and there's such an atmosphere of love and understanding. You bond in such a short time."
Keller is the music director for the tours — "half of the band are members of my family" — and he said it is fun to see how the exchange works both ways. "We see what their cultures are like. But we get to show them ours."
Clogging and bluegrass music are very American, he said. "These are our traditions, where our roots are. And when you see everyone go wild for clogging, you get chills. It makes you feel great."
According to Bishop, clogging was born in the Appalachian Mountains and is itself a melting-pot genre. It shows influences of the European and Irish settlers, but it also has touches of the music of American Indians and African slaves.
For some reason, clogging really caught fire in Utah in the early 1980s, adds Romney. "When we were in college (she and Bishop met as participants in Brigham Young University's folk dance program), BYU sent a specialist back to Appalachia to learn some of the routines. Now it seems to be more active here than a lot of places. There are competitions and workshops."
Part of what makes it so distinctive and popular is the type of double-tap used on heel and toe to amplify sound of the intricate steps. "At the end, we do an a cappella tag, without the music, so you just hear the sounds of the taps," said Bishop. "It always gets a big round of applause."
But the repertoire Clog America does on its tours is not all strictly clogging. "We do a number of dances representing various time periods of American history, including pioneer dances, the waltz, cake-walk, Charleston, rock 'n' roll and dances of the '60s, up to contemporary country and line dances," said Bishop. And it involves more than 10 different costume changes. "It's all fast-paced and exciting and very popular with European audiences."
Which is why they keep getting invited back. Clog America used to do tours every other year, but now they are to the point where they hope to do something every year.
Even so, say Bishop and Romney, its not just about the dancing. "We're not just going to Europe to have a good time. Our objectives are to share culture and brotherhood."
And it doesn't take long, adds Romney, to realize "that all our needs and dreams and goals are the same."
Through the universal language of dance, lives are touching lives on both sides.
E-mail: carma@desnews.com