Line Dancing Lovers Put on Tapping Shoes : Clogging lets people jazz up their footwork. One aficionado says, “It’s fun because you don’t feel like you’re working.”

Kim Brown is a woman with a mission. Just read her T-shirt: “Clogging is Not a Plumbing Problem.” Still don’t get it?

Brown is president of the 75-member Seaview Cloggers, one of four clubs in Ventura County devoted to clog dancing. And Brown would like to see more people give it a try.

Clogging has been in the United States for about 200 years, according to Brown. But it gained popularity in California in the mid-70s, when square dancers brought it in from back East.

Seaview Cloggers was formed about eight years ago. But recently it seems that many people who have mastered line dancing are turning to clogging as a new challenge and as a way to jazz up their footwork.

“It’s like country tap dancing, but it was a predecessor to tap dancing,” said Brown. “It was featured on ‘Hee Haw’ and it has continuously evolved as each group of people have added their influence. Right now the biggest influences I see are line dancing and hip-hop.

“We wear double-plated taps on the bottoms of our shoes,” Brown said. “Then we build upon steps and put them into dances, whereas line dancing repeats a sequence.”

She explained that line dancing and clogging share a few terms, such as “grapevine.” But the thousands of steps and terms in clogging are standardized in a one-inch-thick glossary that has been standardized by the Southern California Clogging Assn. and the Southern California Clogging Teachers Assn.

An avid clogger, Brown wants to become an instructor. “Clogging teachers are rare. We generally have one teacher per area,” she said. “Similar to square dancing, someone calls the steps. But we call them a ‘cuer,’ not a ‘caller.’ ”

Brown, a graphic artist who creates the Crazy Bull restaurant flyers, has produced a monthly clogging newsletter called the Cue Sheet. She got hooked on clogging four years ago.

“It’s fun because you don’t feel like you’re working,” she said. “Once people get into clogging, it’s like an addiction. Once a week was not enough for me. I was going to three classes a week.”

Brown started getting high on the activity after she watched a clogging demonstration on “Reading Rainbow” with her children.

“It’s great for children,” she noted. “Two of my kids, who are 21 and 8, are cloggers.”

The kids pick it up fast, she said. Currently, Carole Ester in Camarillo is the only area instructor teaching a separate group of children, ages 8 to 13.

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FYI: More than 1,000 clogging enthusiasts are expected to attend a convention in Fresno from Feb. 18-20. There will be 26 instructors from across the United States presenting 52 workshops. And the Mardi Gras theme will keep participants dancing until 4 a.m. For details, call (209) 298-8036, or write: Southern Spectacular, P.O. Box 17037, Fresno, CA 93744.

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Congrats to Venturans Carl Wade and Judy Nash, who gave new meaning to the term “Country Lovers” on Dec. 1. After his reelection to a second term as president of the Country Lovers Western Dance Club, Wade and Nash high-tailed it to Lake Tahoe in search of--what else--new places to dance. But it turned out to be more than that.

“We’d been engaged for two years. And people kept asking us when was the magic date,” Wade said. “We tried each day of the year out and couldn’t quite seem to pick one. So I was sitting there reading the Tahoe weekend entertainment guide. They had places to dance, places to eat, places to ski and places to get hitched. So we decided to get married right there.”

Next Week: Where to boot scoot and get swing lessons in 1994.

Details

New clogging classes are forming during the first week in January at the following locations.

Conejo Valley Cloggers meet on Mondays at the Center for the Arts, 110 Conejo School Road, Thousand Oaks. Western Line dancing, 6 p.m. Then Julie Morris teaches beginning clogging at 7 p.m. and intermediate through advanced levels from 8 to 10 p.m. Cost per night: $4 for clogging, additional $1.25 for line dancing, 486-3668.

Beginning Jan. 25, an eight-week session of classes will be offered at the Chase Palm Recreation Center, 236 E. Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara. Fred Weisshaar will teach beginning level at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $28. For information about additional times, call 483-0904.

The Santa Rosette Cloggers meet every Tuesday at Dizdar Park, located at the corner of Glenn Drive and Ventura Blvd., Camarillo. Carole Ester teaches beginning clogging at 6:30 p.m., intermediate and advanced from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. Cost per night, $5; for information, call 529-4389.

Seaview Cloggers meet each Wednesday at the VFW Hall, 3801 Market St., Ventura. The club invites all cloggers to join an exhibition team they are forming; the team will meet for practice from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. Starting Jan. 5, Fred Weisshaar will teach beginning clogging at 7:15 p.m. and intermediate through advanced from 8 to 10 p.m. Cost per night: $4 for adults, $3.75 for club members, $2 for teen-agers under age 16. For details, call 987-4078.

Rancho Simi Cloggers meet on Thursdays at Simi Valley Boys & Girls Club (old Bellwood School), 3050 Kadota St., Simi Valley. Walt and Helen Spellmeyer teach beginning clogging at 7 p.m. and intermediate through advanced from 8 to 10 p.m. Cost per night: $4, $2 for age 14 and under. For details, call 583-5212.

* TWO STEPPIN’: Your guide to area county music entertainment is in the 11-Day Calendar section today. Page 10