Dance in Film · 1959
Clog Dance (1959)
On Porthmadog stone floors, Welsh clog dancers turn wooden soles into percussion, demonstrating compact stepwork, the Toby Step and broom tricks as a local team revives a quarry-and-port tradition.
Clog Dance is a 1959 dance documentary centred on Historic Gilded Age Ballroom. For dancers, it's a chance to see the style performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
Jump to the 4 indexed dance sequences ↓
Dance styles featured
Where to watch: BFI Player; BFI National Archive on YouTube
The dance sequences in Clog Dance
4 sequences — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
Broom-stepping demonstration
ClogDanced by Porthmadog dancers
Wooden clogs clearing crossed brooms and landing squarely back on the beat.
Stepping and jumping over brooms turns a household object into a test of timing, clearance and nerve. The obstacle makes each accented landing visible as well as audible, showing how competitive tricks sharpen the traditional vocabulary.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip.
Harbour sailor’s clog solo
ClogA sailor striking crisp rhythms in wooden clogs as a child watches from the harbour window.
The compact solo makes the shoe itself a percussion instrument, with the dancer’s feet carrying rhythm while the body stays economical. Framed as a memory of Porthmadog’s international port, the stepwork turns cultural exchange into local movement vocabulary.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip.
Porthmadog team dance with harp
ClogDanced by Porthmadog dance team
A costumed local team filling a stone-floored room with interlocking clog rhythms beside the harp.
Group phrasing sets the clogs’ hard-edged rhythms against Eleanor Dwyryd’s harp accompaniment, letting melody and foot percussion answer one another. Costume and the stone-floored kitchen setting keep the revival tied to social practice rather than stage spectacle alone.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip.
The intricate Toby Step
ClogDanced by Porthmadog dancers
Alternating legs darting from a deep squat while the clogs keep the pulse.
The dancers lower the body and shoot alternating feet forward without losing the beat, combining grounded control with a showman’s challenge. The trick exposes how Welsh clog practice couples percussive precision to athletic invention.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip.
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