Leanne E. Smith
Floating Dancer: The Story of Robert Dotson,
the Walking Step, and the Green Grass Cloggers
Director & Co-Producer/Editor | with Co-Producer/Editor M. Chad Smith | 2016
Calico & Possum Tales: The 40th Anniversary Tour
History Consultant | film by M. Chad Smith | 2013
Films
Growing from my ongoing research and writing about the Green Grass Cloggers, I have started exploring storytelling via film.
Completed in 2013 for a Green Grass Clogger audience, Calico & Possum Tales: The 40th Anniversary Tour captures onstage and offstage moments during the group’s 2011 performances with current and alumni dancers. For a reflective segment, I contributed material from my research, and I assisted with identifications.
Floating Dancer acquaints viewers with GGC mentor Robert Dotson and the Walking Step, a percussive dance step the Green Grass Cloggers deciphered from Robert’s flatfooting style of dancing in 1978. The GGCs helped spread the Walking Step far beyond Robert’s home community of Sugar Grove, NC, where he lived for the majority of his 91 years (May 13, 1923 - January 13, 2015). Teaching the Walking Step has proved to be an effective way for the NC-based Green Grass Cloggers and other clogging teams to introduce new dancers to flatfooting and clogging at festivals and workshops in several states and countries.
(22 min. | Pilcrow, Possum & Persimmon - film productions | 2-29-2016)
