Appalachian dancing is a form of folk dancing developed in the Appalachian Mountains of North America, where it is still popular today. Generations of settlers from all over Europe took their traditional dance steps and music with them to the New World, where they were blended together with the rhythms of African slaves and the dance steps of Cherokee Indians. Eventually a new dance style, "Appalachian" dancing emerged. It is sometimes called American clogging, but is not usually danced in clogs. Instead we use tap shoes or flat leather-soled shoes.
In practice, Appalachian dancing looks like this. It's something like a cross between Irish dance, traditional English dance, and clogging. It is much more free flowing than Irish dance, but uses similarly intricate steps. Appalachian dancers either improvise their dances, providing a percussion-like accompaniment to the music, or they dance set routines in formation. Improvised dance is often done in the 'flat footing' style.
The music is central to the style of Appalachian dancing. We dance to traditional American and English tunes such as 'Turkey in the Straw' and 'Liza Jane', played extremely fast to keep up with the dancers! Fiddle, banjo and guitar form the basis of the band but more or less any folk instrument sounds good.