MARSHALL -- Two rows of five people, representing all ages, clad in red and white and dancing in perfect unison, have been among the regular performers on the Community Stage at the Calhoun County Fair this week.

They are the Thunderfloor Cloggers, one of a variety of acts offering free entertainment daily during fair week, giving fair-goers a chance to rest for a moment from the hustle and bustle around them. They perform several times each evening.

The group is based out of Lake Odessa and was started 12 years ago when Bob Warner and his wife Lynda started teaching clogging in their dining room with just two students. Bob Warner became a certified clogging instructor through C.L.O.G. of Atlanta, Ga., in 1997, and the organization now includes cloggers from across Michigan.

Bob views clogging as fit for all ages, from "5 to 105," and said that many dances, such as tap dancing, came out of clogging. "Clogging is from the farmer's dance in Holland," he said. "Every country in Europe has a clog dance, except Switzerland."

Unlike tap dancing, you can clog in any type of shoe, but the Thunderfloor Cloggers clog in shoes designed by Bob. "The shoe I designed has leather heels," he said. "Most of the clogging shoes that you see now have got wooden heels. The white ones we wear have metal taps but the black ones don't have any metal on the floor."

Eleven dancers performed at the fair on Wednesday, but there are 36 on the performance team and many others who take lessons but choose not to perform. This is the second year the team has performed at the fair, and it also has clogged for the Barry County Kent County and Branch County fairs. They hold practices in six locations and they perform at a wide variety of events

Geneva Jones of Battle Creek and her husband Bill have been clogging for nearly 13 years. They started after seeing some cloggers in action during a vacation in Maggie Valley, N.C. "It was a competition and they were out there practicing and I told Geneva when we get back to Michigan let's start that, and two weeks later we started," Bill said.

They attend practices every Thursday in Lake Odessa. One of Bill's favorite things about clogging is the friendships that develop. "The friendship is golden," Geneva added. This community feeling is a crucial aspect for the troupe. Lynda Warner could not dance due to a injured foot, but she was right there helping out with the performance and supporting the other dancers. "We're all one great big family," she said. Bob also thinks clogging is a great activity for families.

"A lot of people think we've got to reach the kids. That's not true. We have to reach the families," he said. "You reach for the family with wholesome music and a wholesome thing to do together and the kids mature, and mature right." Bob, who started clogging just because "it looked like a good thing to do" and didn't dance until he was 50, wanted to help others experience the joy of clogging. Four of his five children and six of his 13 grandchildren know how to clog. "I enjoy the feel of it and also seeing it bring joy to other people. One thing I have found out through this is God's a clogger," he said. "He's a clogger. I'm more convinced of it as we go along." Bob also found clogging helps people of all ages get in touch with their youth. When he was teaching some adults who were having trouble learning to clog, he decided to teach them the same way he taught the children and "they responded." "We're all kids," he said. "Somewhere along the line, people were told that having a responsibility means not having any fun. It's not true. You should have more fun because you've got more insight into everything else."

Exercise motivates many of the participants. "The job that I had, I would sit down a lot and I thought 'Well, I'm getting towards retirement, I better get myself into something that's going to get me active, and get me on the move,'" said Lois Jackson, of Lake Odessa, has been dancing since about 1995. Yet the performers get another charge out of clogging. Lynda mentioned that Jackson wasn't going to perform when she first started. Jackson soon was convinced to try it out. "Oh, it's a blast," she said, referring to performing. "They told me, 'You do it once, you will be hooked into it' and they were right. We just have such a good time." Originally published Saturday, August 16, 2003