Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Western North Carolina Buckdancers, Flatfooters, & Charleston Dancers
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
At community dances and other gatherings in Appalachia where traditional music is played, it is not uncommon to see individual buckdancers and flatfoot dancers out on the floor. These step dances have roots in earlier European, African, and Native American dance forms, and they involve a wide variety of personal steps and styles. In 1992, I received a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council to document elderly dancers in western North Carolina, and that fall and during the spring of 1993, I located, interviewed, and filmed more than forty dancers, ranging in age from fifty to eighty-five. (The eldest was born in 1908.) These dancers learned to dance before the standardization of steps and styles that came with the advent of contemporary clogging in the second half of the twentieth century. They include African American and Native American as well as European American dancers from eleven mountain counties. All but a few are now deceased. The film footage that resulted from this project is now part of the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and last year, with the support of sabbatical funding from Warren Wilson College, I edited it to create nineteen short videos. These videos, featuring thirty-eight of the dancers, are now available on YouTube. They include interviews as well as dancing, and they contribute greatly to our understanding not only of traditional Appalachian step dancing, but the role of these dances in the history and culture of the region.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Phil Jamison is a nationally-known old-time musician, flatfoot dancer, and square dance caller, who teaches Appalachian music and dance, as well as mathematics, at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. Over the years, he has done extensive research in the area of Appalachian dance, and his recently published book, Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance (University of Illinois Press, 2015), tells the story of these Southern traditions. www.philjamison.com
Western North Carolina Buckdancers, Flatfooters, & Charleston Dancers
At community dances and other gatherings in Appalachia where traditional music is played, it is not uncommon to see individual buckdancers and flatfoot dancers out on the floor. These step dances have roots in earlier European, African, and Native American dance forms, and they involve a wide variety of personal steps and styles. In 1992, I received a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council to document elderly dancers in western North Carolina, and that fall and during the spring of 1993, I located, interviewed, and filmed more than forty dancers, ranging in age from fifty to eighty-five. (The eldest was born in 1908.) These dancers learned to dance before the standardization of steps and styles that came with the advent of contemporary clogging in the second half of the twentieth century. They include African American and Native American as well as European American dancers from eleven mountain counties. All but a few are now deceased. The film footage that resulted from this project is now part of the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and last year, with the support of sabbatical funding from Warren Wilson College, I edited it to create nineteen short videos. These videos, featuring thirty-eight of the dancers, are now available on YouTube. They include interviews as well as dancing, and they contribute greatly to our understanding not only of traditional Appalachian step dancing, but the role of these dances in the history and culture of the region.
