Can someone please explain to me the difference between tap and clog dancing?

BlueFaith25: Can someone please explain to me the difference between tap and clog dancing?
I was watching some dance videos on youtube and I somehow ended up watching clog dancing and then decided to look at tap dancing. They look very similar, I am assuming that one is derived from the other one. I am interested in learning what the differences are… Is it just the type of shoe that is used?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Courtney
Tap Dance was influenced by clogging along with a variety of other folk dancing styles. Tap is a relatively new dance form, with ancient roots.
Clogging is a folk dance from Europe, (it has some similarities to Irish Dancing) it traveled to the US with immigrants, and became quite popular. It is sometimes associated with Bluegrass music and culture.

Using the feet to beat out a rhythm can be found throughout the world as a dance form, from Asia, to Africa, to Europe.

Lots of info about the many influences of tap dance here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_dance

Answer by xx georgina xx dancer xx
Tap dance was developed in the United States during the nineteenth century, and is popular in many parts of the world. The name comes from the tapping sound made when metal plates on the dancer’s shoes touches a hard surface. Because the dancer makes sound, they are also considered a percussive musician.
The influences of tap dancing may include: [1]

Irish and English
Irish freeform solo Sean-nós dance
Irish competitive Stepdance
Clogging, where there may be no accompanying music, just the noise of the shoes
Step dancing in general.
Stomp dancing, where the sound of other objects are used to enhance the stomping sound of the foot
Masters would often challenge each other to be the best dancer and win students
African
African dances were often used as a form of communication and reflected most aspects of daily life
Drum rhythms are often highly complex and syncopated
African gumboot dance were developed in the 1970s in South Africa by mine workers and may have derived from Tap.
Steps included gliding, shuffling, and large amounts of improvisation
There seems to be no historical evidence of percussive (heel toe) dance footwear in this culture predating tap.
Indian
The anklet bells worn by Bharatanatyam dancers involved extremely intricate footwork, especially in the Suddha Nrittam items (tapping to the drum beats, with no other instruments playing).
West Indies
Complex rhythms dictated by drums
Juba Dance a very quick and competitive dance involving intricate foot work, hand clapping and patting the bum
There seems to be no historical evidence of percussive (heel toe) dance footwear in this culture
predating tap.
Spanish
Zapateado of Spanish flamenco, where nails are hammered into the heel and the front
part of the dancers’ shoes, so that the rhythm of their steps can be heard
Spanish mad-step (practiced by early tap practitioners Eduardo Corrochio and Henry Rogers)
During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the best tap dancers moved from Vaudeville to cinema and television. Steve Condos, with his innovative style of percussion tap, created a whole new tap style that he introduced to audiences in Vaudeville, and later to the audiences of film and Broadway. Prominent tap dancers of this period included Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Michael JacksonShirley Temple, John W. Bubbles, Charles “Honi” Coles, Vera-Ellen, Ruby Keeler, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller (credited as the fatest recorded tap dancer, a record she still holds), Jeni LeGon,[2], Fayard and Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, Donald O’Connor, Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, PrinceSpencer,[3] Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Jimmy Slyde.

During the 1930s tap dance mixed with Lindy Hop. “Flying swing outs” and “flying circles” are Lindy Hop moves with tap footwork.It also was performanced mosly anywhere which made it ideal for whose who couldnt get palce in a hurry.

In the 1950s, the style of entertainment changed. Jazz music and tap dance declined, while rock and roll music and the new jazz dance emerged. What is now called jazz dance evolved out of tap dance, so both dances have many moves in common. But jazz evolved separately from tap dance to become a new form in its own right. Well-known dancers during the 1960s and 1970s included Arthur Duncan and Tommy Tune.

CLOG DANCE
Clogging is a type of folk dance rooted in traditional European dancing from the British Isles,[1] in which the dancer’s footwear is used musically by striking the heel, the toe, or both in unison against a floor or each other to create audible percussive rhythms.[2] Clog is from a Gaelic word meaning “time.” [3][3]

Clogging was social dance in the Appalachian Mountains as early as the 1700s.

As the clogging style has migrated over the years, many localities have made contributions by adding local steps and rhythms to the style. Welsh seamen appear to have adopted the dance very early on and may have been those who introduced it to the British Isles. As the dance migrated to England in the 1400s, the all wooden clog was replaced by a leather topped shoe with a one piece wooden bottom. By the 1500s a more convention leather shoe with separate wooden pieces on the heel and toe called “flats” became popular, from where the terms “heel and toe” and “flat footing” derive.

In later periods it was not always called “clogging”, being known variously as flat-footing, foot-stomping, buck dancing,clog dancing, jigging, or other local terms. What all these had in common was emphasizing the downbeat of the music by enthusiastic footwork.As for the shoes many old clogging shoes had no taps.Some were made of leather and velvet.The soles of the shoes were either wooden or hard leather.

Answer by dancecutie567
Clogging is similar to tap dancing, but has a different style. Cloggers perform with an up-and-down body motion and tend to make the most sounds with their heels. Tap dancers stay light on their feet. Clogging is becoming more popular.

As to which is better…..it really doesn’t matter. They are different, and I would recommend trying both. Clogging has more performance opportunities because not as many people do it.