Robert Dotson (1923-2015) was a flatfoot dancer from Sugar Grove, North Carolina; he and his wife, Myrtle, were instrumental in keeping the tradition of flatfoot dancing styles of Western North Carolina alive, and they received the North Carolina Heritage Award in 1994. The couple, who grew up dancing in the same community, made a conscious decision and effort to keep alive the traditional flatfoot dance styles of western North Carolina, deliberately weaving the old-time flatfoot and buckdance steps into their dancing, even when many of their neighbors performed the latest clogging variations. They also hosted their own dances near their home in Sugar Grove. Early years Dancers from around the world would visit the Dotsons in North Carolina to learn what came to be named the Dotson Walking Step. The Dotsons hosted dances at their home and "dance shack," a little house that Robert built across the street from where he lived. It didn’t have many rooms, so there was plenty of open space to dance. Friend and fellow dancer Rodney Sutton began attending these gatherings in the 1970s. He said that they featured a “big revival of young folks moving into the High Country and playing old-time music” – in particular the Corklickers, a band that is still around today. In the 1970s, the Green Grass Cloggers, a touring company based in North Carolina that featured old-time dancing, learned Robert's "walking" step and incorporated it into their performances. The Dotsons were Master Artists in residence during Dance Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia. They earned first prize at numerous dance contests in their section of the Blue Ridge. As part of their commitment to traditional dance, they drove once a week to Elizabethton, Tennessee, to lead square dances and to demonstrate their flatfoot styles. Footworks, a nationally known dance troupe from New York, contacted the Dotsons after learning about their mastery of old-time flatfooting style, requesting to come watch him in hopes of learning some of his moves. The troupe of about a dozen dancers stayed in the cabin’s bunk loft for three nights. They danced every day and every night while they were visiting the Dotsons, and Robert remained good friends with one of the group's original members. Biography Robert Dotson was born on May 13, 1923, to Don and Bina Hicks Dotson; he died on Tuesday, Jan.13, 2015, at the age of 91.