Lynette Eldon

Lynette has been clog dancing for over 40 years. Early in those years, at events where the late, great Johnson Ellwood was sharing steps, he urged those present to spread clog dancing as much as possible. That encouragement has been a driving force in Lynette’s life.

Her first teacher was Shelagh Illingworth (nee Roberts), herself a pupil of Johnson Ellwood. Lynette went on to learn directly from Johnson and from his daughter Mary Jameson. Always she found face-to-face learning from the older dancers invaluable. Other such mentors were Viona Marhoff, Sammy Bell, Ivy Sands, Doris Hawkes and Sam Sherry. Lynette won the Northern Counties Clog Dancing Championship Belt at Durham in 1982 and in 1983 she won the Northern Counties Pedestal Clog Dancing Trophy.

In 1976 Lynette was a founder member of Green Ginger Clog Dancers in Hull. Green Ginger danced at major festivals and events throughout the country, including performances at the Royal Albert Hall, London and at the Sidmouth International Folk Festival, Devon where, on the Arena stage, they were the first English team to be called back for an encore.

In the 1980’s Lynette’s name was placed on the EFDSS register of approved teachers of clog dancing. She has a wide experience of leading workshops ranging from beginners to advanced level and of working with all ages. In recent years she has been a judge at clog dancing competitions including the Northumberland Clog Dance Solo Championship, Morpeth and the Northern Counties Clog Dancing Championship, Newbrough, Northumberland.

Lynette’s father was a fiddler, his tunes learnt from his dad, a tenant farmer in Holderness and from his Uncle Sep, who lived on a houseboat on Hedon Haven. She is married to fiddler and singer Jim Eldon. Lynette loves to step to the family tunes and has developed her own freestyle stepping to compliment idiosyncrasies in some of the tunes. This stepping earned her 2nd place in the Dartmoor Stepdancing contest in 1984.

Performing as a solo dancer, a team member of Green Ginger and Duke’s Dandy and with husband Jim, Lynette has danced in Britain, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland and Canada.

With Jim, she has taken clog dancing into schools, prisons, old people’s homes and village halls. They have performed at arts festivals, sea festivals, storytelling festivals, step dancing events, civic events and on radio and television. Lynette’s clog dancing has been on show from pub yards at Appleby Horse Fair to the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank, London.