Theyll be kickinup their heels and rosininup their bows Nov. 8-9 in the Mountainlair Gluck Theatre.
Dancers and musicians will take the stage that weekend to celebrate their Appalachian heritage as part of West Virginia Universitys Mountaineer Week (Nov. 7-16).
The first-ever clogging competition will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9. Groups have been invited from all across West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
There will be competitions for youngsters, teen-agers and dancers 18 and older, said Kim Richison, event director. The cost to enter is $5 per person per event.
Richison, a senior exercise physiology major at WVU and an employee of the City Parks of Clarksburg dance program, is excited about the contest. Besides coordinating the event, she will be competing with her dance group, the Fancy-Double Youth Cloggers.
Its a great thing for people to come and see how it can be done,she said.It celebrates Appalachian heritage. Hopefully this will become a yearly event.
While the dancers are putting the finishing touches on their shoes, Appalachian musicians will be competing in the annual fiddling contest at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8. There will be two age brackets: a junior division consisting of fiddlers 59 years old and younger and a senior division for those 60 and older.
Chris Haddox, executive director for the Monongalia County Habitat for Humanity and a long-time fiddler, looks forward to this event.
The fiddling contest gets folks out to hear lots of different fiddling styles,said Haddox, who helps organize the competition.It really keeps the music alive.
In the past, the contest has been an open one, accepting all different styles of fiddling, he explained. This years contest will have a more traditional flare to it, in hopes of attracting more people to the Appalachian-centered,traditionalstyle of fiddle-playing.
The clogging and fiddling contests are two of many ways to experience Appalachian culture during Mountaineer Week. A detailed schedule of events is available on the Web at http://www.wvu.edu/mountaineer_week/scheduleofevents.html .
The Southeast Tourism Society included Mountaineer Week among its top 20 events for October, November and December. The society, which covers 11 states from West Virginia to Florida, has been touting travel to the region since 1983 and publishing its top 20 events since 1985.