Our 20-24 dancers are selected from some 100 core students in our clogging studio in Idaho on an annual basis for our prestigious Festival Team. We choose dancers based on their skill, commitment, attitude, and performance abilities. All must be accomplished cloggers and display adeptness in the other dance styles we undertake as well. Our favorite aspect of dance is that of International Dance Festivals and the friendships and rich cultural experiences we have encountered at these Festivals.
DIRECTORS
Gary and Mindy Larsen
Gary Larsen is a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer specializing in World and percussive dance forms. As a teen he won every clogging category available before joining an American dance troupe and traveling to festivals in Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, and Austria. During his four years at Brigham Young University he was president of the 200-member folk dance club and was a four-year dance full scholarship recipient. He received a Masters Degree in Dance from University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) while dancing professionally as a regular member of the Aman Folk Ensemble. After two years lecturing in Dance and Liberal Studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, he moved to BYU-Idaho where he teaches clogging, tap, world dance, dance history, humanities, choreography and performance. He is also currently working on completing a PhD in Ethnochoreology from the University of Limerick in Ireland. His performing experience has taken him to dozens of countries as team member, choreographer and soloist. He has taught and created choreography for groups and schools throughout the United States and in numerous other countries, and is a National Teacher and Adjudicator for all of the major national clogging organizations. He met Mindy, who has taken dancing since she was three, while both were members of the BYU International Folk Dance Company. They toured Canada, the United States, Russia and Scandinavia before marrying in 1996. They have three children and own and operate Footworks Dance Studio, specializing in clogging and step dancing.
