Every Sunday, the harmony of traditional folk music and the rhythm of feet shuffling and stomping fill a room occupied by people of all ages.

The Onion Creek Band and Cloggers consists of musicians and dancers ranging from grade-schoolers to retirees who all share a love for time-honored styles of dancing.

The group came together in 1977 when a newspaper advertisement brought together locals who were interested in a different style of music and dancing. They met at a lodge by Onion Creek, near Ames. The meeting became the first of the Onion Creek Band and Cloggers.

“This style of clogging came about in the 1970s when people added square dancing moves with clogging steps,” says Nancy Blyler, an Ames resident and a member of the Onion Creek Band and Cloggers. “The clog steps come from Scottish, Irish and Cherokee dancing.”

Different types of steps include the Basic, the Big Kick and the Bertha. The Basic is a simple shuffle step, but vital to many routines.

“All dances use different variations of the Basic,” clogger and bass player Von Kastor, Ames resident, says.

Mary Sand, an Ames resident, is a fiddle player and the band leader, a position she acquired partly because of the nature of her instrument.

“The whole deal is I can call the changes because I don’t play a wind instrument,” she says.

Blyler, Ames resident, plays the hammer dulcimer, a large string instrument that is played by striking its wires with small, delicate tools called hammers. Other instruments in the band are fiddles, guitars, banjos, spoons, a bodhran and harmonica.

Band members keep time by stomping their feet on the ground. When they perform, the wooden stage especially amplifies their stomps and helps keep the beat steady.

“One time I stomped so hard my harmonica fell off the stool three times,” Ames resident John Lamberts says.

Nevada resident, Cyndi Drury, joined after her young daughters became interested in the group.

Drury’s daughter, Bethany Drury, 14, is one of the younger cloggers and has been clogging for three years.

“It’s a lot of fun. I especially enjoy going to new towns when we perform,” Bethany says.

Henry Chen, ISU graduate student in accounting, came to a practice because he had seen the group perform before.

“I’ve seen them a couple times, so I thought I’d come and be another addition,” Chen says.

Merlin Pfannkuch, an Ames resident, also followed the group to several performances before actually deciding to join.

“I was the biggest clogger groupie,” Pfannkuch says.

Members of the group do not strictly define themselves as band members or dancers. Many of them do both.

“Very few of us are just seat warmers,” Drury says.

Veteran members Kastor and Blyler teach the traditional routines to the cloggers and newer members. The cloggers perform and teach the public their craft at various barn dances throughout the year.

“They’re a very social thing,” Kastor says.

These non-competitive events are a chance for experienced cloggers to showcase their skills and introduce their style of music and dancing to an interested audience.

The band and cloggers also perform at the Iowa State Farm House Museum during the Fourth of July celebration and have performed at the Iowa State Fair.

The group says they always welcome new members to their practices, which are very relaxed and casual. Members often joke, tease and talk between practicing songs.

“I like the movement. But the cheerful atmosphere that clogging creates — that’s what I like best,” Chen says.