Florida Clogging Council:
We write this letter, nominating Elaine Enfield for recognition in the Florida Clogging Hall of Fame.
Elaine has been a major contributor to Florida Clogging — as a choreographer, team director, competition judge, competition and event host and overall fan and supporter of clogging and the Florida Clogging family.
Routines written by Elaine that are used nationwide include Down at the Twist and Shout and Cowboy’s Sweetheart.
Elaine Enfield is married with 3 children, 2 granddaughters and a great grandson. Elaine is a breast cancer survivor, and she has been a clogging instructor for nearly 30 years, a national clogging judge, a former member of the Pasco County Fair Association, and a committee member for Miss Pasco County and Miss Heart of Florida. She's a former Board of Director for Heritage Art Association and has judged for Miss Florida.
Elaine served as secretary of FCC and taught at the State Clogging Convention for many years, as well as the workshops in LaBelle, Sebring, Riverview, Plant City and other Florida workshops — and at the National Square Dance and Clogging Convention in Orlando. (Steven Ballard and Margie Luckey were her helpers).
Elaine is still active as a judge with ACHF and Cadance and loves being with all the cloggers, meeting new cloggers and seeing the old ones also.
Elaine Enfield is a native Floridian from Ft. Meade. She now resides in Dade City with her husband Ron. She began her professional career in banking, then became a property and casualty insurance agent. Elaine began in the real estate business in 2001 with Bingham Realty, Inc. as a Property Manager for several apartment complexes.
Elaine directed the Ft. Meade Clogging Contest in Ft. Meade and the Pasco County Fair Clogging Contest in Dade City. These events, for many years, allowed Florida cloggers to qualify for national competitions sanctioned by the American Clogging Hall of Fame (Maggie Valley) and the National Clogging and Hoedown Council (NCHC – Nashville and other cities where nationals has occurred). Florida cloggers also qualified for the AAU’s Junior Olympics through Elaine’s events. Many Florida clogging teams have adopted “Miss Elaine” as part of their clogging families and depended on her events to qualify and participate on the national level. Among these were Clogging Connection, SoundStage/American Racket, Electric Rhythm, Buckshot, Calico Coyotes, the Silver Bullets, Feet of Flames, Silver River Cloggers and many more. The Fort Meade competition continued until the facility was devastated by Hurricane Charley.
Elaine began clogging in 1983, at age 34, and fell in love with it.
She was first a member of the Sumter County Cloggers from Bushnell, under the instruction of Sue Hogans. Her son wanted to learn the Southern Appalachian style square dance clogging so they also joined the Suncoast Cloggers from Inverness with instructor Mary Mixon.
In 1986, Elaine began teaching in Dade City for the Blackwood Dance Studio for about 3 years. The team name was Blackwood Backwood Cloggers.
The team participated in some local competitions including Spotlight on Talents and the Sumter County Fair. It was during this time that Elaine became a member of Florida Clogging Council and was certified as an FCC instructor.
Elaine changed her team name from the Backwood Cloggers to Rhythm "N” Motion (FL), based in Trilby Fl. She also taught at Helen's Dance and Baton, Zephyrhills, Fl for several years in the late 80s.
Other groups Elaine taught include the Sand Mountain Cloggers in Ft Meade and the Imperial Cloggers in Bartow.
In the 80s Elaine decided to attend a judges workshops so I could see what judges were looking for in competition team. She enjoyed contributing through judging and became a certified judge for both NCHC (National Clogging and Hoedown Council) and ACHF (American Clogging Hall of Fame) for their clogging contests. In 2015, she was certified to judge Cadence competitions for the Florida Clogging Festival. Over many years, she has judged in Nashville, TN at the Grand Ole Opry, Maggie Valley, NC for the National Clogging Contest for ACHF, Competitions in Charlotte NC at Paramount Theme Park, at the Florida State Fair, Tampa, Fl, in Athens, Ga and Foley AL, the Strawberry Festival, Plant City, the Florida Clogging Festival in Gainesville, FL, National contest in Daytona Beach, and many local contests.
Please recognize Elaine Enfield for all she has contributed to Florida Clogging!
Proud friends of Elaine,
Andy Howard and Team
Anne Lanier
Steven Ballard
Debbie, Becky, Jamie and Kaley Conn
Brenda Eaton and Family
