Meet the Guys

The Barbary Coast Cloggers were founded in San Francisco to bring the rowdiness and unique spirit of North America’s indigenous dance form, called clogging or American step dancing, out of the Appalachian Mountains all the way to the West Coast. Performing since 1981, the company’s innovative performance style is an exciting synergy of traditional American dance imbued with originality, flare, and a certain creativity that is characteristically Californian. The San Francisco Chronicle says, “They are the snappiest ensemble dancing and seem to have leaped out of ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.’”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Barbary Coast Cloggers have toured in the United States and Canada, including performances at the New Orleans and Vancouver World’s Fairs, C.L.O.G. Nationals in Nashville and San Diego, and extensively throughout California under the auspices of the California Arts Council Touring and Presenting Program. The company has a long history with the Harvest Festival, performing up to 50 times a year in as many as seven venues in California, Oregon, and Nevada.

Barbary Coast has performed more than a dozen times in the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, and the Artistic Director of World Arts West, producers of the festival, has written that BCC performances “are highlights of the program and an inspiration to many other dance companies who aspire to the level of professionalism and precision the company demonstrates.”

Other local performances include featured presentations at the San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball, Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, Bay Area museums, rodeos, corporate events, commercials, KPIX television’s Evening Magazine, and area schools. In September 2001, the company opened for bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs and country western superstars Brooks & Dunn at San Francisco’s Cow Palace. In 2000, they debuted Appalachian Overdrive, their celebration of American dance and music, at the Dean Lesher Center for the Performing Arts in Walnut Creek. They introduced the work to San Francisco in 2001 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, for which they won the Isadora Duncan Dance Excellence Award (Izzy) for best ensemble performance in that Bay Area.

Most importantly, BCC has been acknowledged by the City and County of San Francisco for its charitable contributions, which have helped raise thousands of dollars for local causes including AIDS support organizations, MS and breast cancer research, and the arts. Since the groups formation, we have focused our time and energy on providing entertainment at fundraisers in San Francisco where we have performed at every Sundance Stompede and return frequently to the Richmond-Ermet Pediatric AIDS Foundation's Help is on the Way where we have performed numbers with Nancy Sinatra and Bruce Vilanch.

Audition Information

Last Updated: January 26, 2012