National Idiom draws on the folk tradition of East-Lancashire clogging from the UK to explore the impact of technology on the body, working through and against systems of constraint and control. Emerging from the cotton mills, where women would tap along to the relentless rhythms of the mechanised looms, clogging is a symbol of the deeply interwoven histories around textile production, voicelessness, class struggle and gendered oppression.

This work contextualises the various historical 'rediscoveries' of folk traditions within the current context of a resurgence of nationalisms in post-industrial regions in Europe and elsewhere. Clogging and other folk expressions are both extremely specific whilst also being deeply interconnected and shared amongst many regions and cultures across the world.