Wild Willie Hathaway and The Flatland Cloggers Love to Stomp

During work hours, William Hathaway works as a mild-mannered engineer for a Gardena petroleum firm, but during off-hours he becomes Wild Willy Hathaway, foot-stomping clogger extraordinaire.

It’s a double life he’s had to explain ever since he took his first clogging class 11 years ago, since few are aware of what clogging is. It’s an American dance form, with Irish, Scottish, Dutch, African and other ethnic influences, that developed in the eastern United States. “I tell people, ‘Think of it as hillbilly tap-dancing,’ ” Hathaway says.

He’s also fond of calling clogging “the granddaddy of tap” because “Tap grew out of clogging.”

What drew Hathaway to clogging probably was its sounds. He had no dance background before he discovered clogging, but he did have what he calls “an understanding of music”--he’s proficient at the guitar, the banjo and various woodwind instruments.

Back in the old days of clogging, “nobody wore taps or made a lot of noise,” Hathaway said. “But we do a combination of the old styles and the new.” As various foot patterns developed, the steps filled in the percussive elements in the music, he said: “It was like the drum section of dance.”

Naturally, Hathaway does not clog alone. After spending a few years teaching the dance, he formed The Flatland Cloggers, now in its fifth year. “I kept getting calls asking, ‘Hey, can you bring some cloggers?’ so I finally started up a group. The Flatlanders keep busy with shows all over California. They’ve played the major amusement parks (Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland, Magic Mountain), several state fairs, conventions and appear this Sunday at Warner Park as part of the Valley Cultural Center’s Summer Concert in the Park series. The group also has ties to the California Traditional Music Society, which occasionally provides live music for The Flatlanders to clog to.

At Sunday’s show, the cloggers will wear their more traditional costumes (collarless 1890s-style shirts and work pants, and heavy boots with steel taps for the men; mid-calf cotton dresses and tap shoes for the women), and will perform to traditional American folk music.

“We’re not a traditional group all the way--we don’t mind using modern steps,” Hathaway said. “But we do use a lot of the traditional square-dance figures.”

They also don’t go for the more modern costumes (“A lot of these groups wear short skirts and sparkles like jazz dancers,” Hathaway said) or pop music that clogging groups on the East Coast use.

“Being a folk dance, clogging is always undergoing transition by the folks who are doing it,” Hathaway said. “A lot of the young kids involved in clogging like to do the steps to rock and roll, and that’s really neat. But I happen to like the old-style early string music. I’d like to keep that part of it alive--besides, I’m getting too old to do the fancy steps.”

Don’t misunderstand Hathaway, his Flatlanders are a lively bunch. “We’re very percussive,” he said. “Our group has earned a reputation for breaking stages.”

The Flatland Cloggers appear with country and bluegrass violinist Richard Greene and band at the Summer Concert in the Park series on Sunday, Aug. 7 at Warner Park. For information, call the Valley Cultural Center at 818-704-1358.