Dibbie Dunam removed her sweat-soaked, tie-dye bandanna from her forehead as she sat down to catch her breath. She wiped her brow as she looked over the steps to the next dance. Dunam, 73, is the musical director of the Hogtown Heelers clogging club.

“Clogging beats jogging,” Dunam said during her break. “It’s a cardio workout. We always work up a sweat.”

Dunham is one of eight women that practice clogging on Tuesday nights at the Westside Park on Northwest 34th Street. The Hogtown Heelers clogging club has been practicing there for 10 years.

Dunham created the group back in 1979, when she first started clogging as a hobby. Since then, the group has been performing in nursing homes, at special events and at the University of Florida’s Squitieri Studio Theatre, formerly known as the Black Box Theatre.

During practice, Dunam uses a cordless microphone to communicate to the cloggers while she gives dance instructions.

“Two Charlestons, fancy double, now turn around, Irish turkey, and stomp!” Dunham said above the music. “Now, rocking chair, Kentucky drag, two pivots, and stomp!”

The music, the commands, the tapping and the clicking are the epitome of the clogging atmosphere.

Clogging is a combination of Irish step dancing and tap dancing, except for the shoes. The metal tap on clogs, unlike tap shoes, is not completely bolted to the bottom of the sole. This allows for the clicking sound that accompanies the loud tapping noise when dancers tap their feet.

As Dunam calls out the moves, the cloggers follow in synch. One of those cloggers is Sally Blair, a 73-year-old Gainesville resident. Blair has been clogging for a few years and started her hobby with the Hogtown Heelers club.

Blair broke her toe in a home accident a few weeks ago and attended the Tuesday-night practice after taking a short break from clogging.

Blair said she clogs for exercise because it keeps her cholesterol and blood pressure down.

“I don’t want to stay home,” Blair said. “I want to be active.”

Blair takes aerobics classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, as well as line dancing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in addition to the clogging club.

“I love dancing,” Blair said during practice, “and I love my group.”

The Hogtown Heelers clogging club as had between 10 and 20 members at any given time. Most of them are between the ages of 65 and 78. Sometimes attendance fluctuates, but the group is very tight knit. As Dunam calls out “Donkey!,” the cloggers joke when she does the wrong move.

“The best thing about clogging is that dancers of different skill levels can dance together,” Dunham said.

The years of experience in the group range from one year to 30 years.

The group is using the summer time to continue practicing and prepare for events later in the year.

As the women chatted and removed their clogging shoes at the end of practice, Dunam said, “Remember; clogging is not a plumbing problem.”