Just when you thought you'd seen everything the world of clogging had to offer ABDC (see: Dynamic Edition), The Blended Projekt come bursting through the hip-hop doors with a new take on an old style.
"Dynamic Edition were a more tradition take on clogging, and they're amazing at what they do, but we're more of a West Coast-style of clogging," the lone male in the crew Jeremy Stoddard told us yesterday. "We try and blend that traditional footwork with more hip-hop moves -- it becomes more of a groove with us, something the audience can really get into."
And although it would be hella-easy to make the obvious comparison between DE's Brandon Norris and Jeremy, he warns to not be so quick to judge. "I learned clogging but I didn't want to stop there ... I wanted to attempt to perfect my art, which is dance as a whole. Brandon is truly amazing at [clogging], but the past few years I've been additionally training in more breakin' and hip-hip moves so it comes out on the stage. I'm more versatile on stage because I can throw in the flips and I can do freezes," he added. "But I don't want to tell you what else I can do to keep some stuff a surprise for the stage!"
When asked what the hardest part about blending hip-hop and clogging is, he told us, "The biggest thing that could hold us back is our traction. Wearing taps is extremely slippery on stage. Normal clogging is on your toes and very centered ... but we do full body movements that throw off our balance, so with taps it's just super slippery."
