The plywood floor under the big white tent jumps and pitches. It pulses, vibrates, almost hums. Hands clap and men stomp as women spin and music plays. This isn't some backwoods tent revival set back in a patch of Chatham County woods; it's traditional Appalachian percussive dance -- clogging, to us common folk.

The word "clogging," as a dance term, tends to conjure up images of Dollywood to some. But a bit of careful study of the scene under the tent reveals enough precise high-energy choreography to send "Dancing with the Stars" spinning out of control.

Jean Healy is one of the dancers making the floor shake, spinning across it in a grinning swirl of red curls and a blue dress with a high twirl factor. She and her fellow dancers are members of The Cane Creek Cloggers, a group formed in 1980 in western Orange County.

Over the years, members have combined traditional clogging, buck dancing and flat-footing with steps and moves originating in Africa, Ireland and the dance rings of Native Americans. Countless hours of practice have turned the team into a precision tapping and twirling machine.

On this warm fall afternoon under the big white tent, Healy and the other members of the group pause only long enough to explain the next dance and remind the excited crowd that, "If you can walk, you can clog."

Some audience members look down and their own feet, and wonder.