Music and dance have long been related to each other. You may have learned how to square dance in gym class at school, or seen somebody walk up to a jam with a wooden board and start shuffling their feet to the music. At a festival or competition, clogging teams like PowerTaps take on the stage with their high-powered, synchronized dance performances. Dance in Appalachian music has evolved in many different directions and provides endless ways to participate in music through movement.
Social Dance
Long before social media, dances were a key social activity that gathered people together. At the end of a long day of work, a musician—typically a fiddler, maybe a banjo player too—a band would provide the music and people would partner up and participate in different dances. Dances used to be taught in dancing schools, where people were instructed in different styles by a dance master. Looking at the names of dance figures, or groups of dance steps, can tell us some clues about where dances come from. For instance, “do-si-do” and “promenade” are French dance terms. Other popular dances taught in schools included Scots-Irish reels and jigs and English country dances. However, in rural areas where dance schools were not as common, the practices of African-American callers enabled more people to learn dances, regardless of their background. A caller is an individual who announces dance figures in real time, directing dancers in their steps while they are already on the floor moving to the music. Calling also made dances more improvisational, and other influences, including African-American ring dances and Native American circle dances, contributed to the development of more styles. Play party dancing, couples dancing, and cakewalks were among other dances that became popular throughout the region.
Two prominent styles of social dancing are contra and square dancing. Contra dancing (from the term “contra dance,” which comes from the French term “contredanse,” or “opposing couples”) is typically more common in the North and choreographed so that the dance determines the music. Music played for a contra dance therefore must be exactly thirty-two bars long, in order to fit the timing of the dance figures. On the other hand, square dances, which are more common in the south, do not require the music to be an exact length. Instead, the caller watches the dancers to determine the timing of the dance figures. The increased flexibility may be partly because banjos, which were more commonly used to play music for square dances in the south, were not typically played in a 6/8 jig rhythm. Other differences between contra and square dancing exist in the dance figures that groups or lines of couples make by dancing together. Think of it like a kaleidoscope—even with the same number of couples, there are countless ways to rearrange, unfold, and create new formations using all of the dancers.
Contra dance at Atlanta Dance Weekend
Solo Dance
Also known as “flat-footing” or “clogging,” solo dance encompasses a variety of styles that are improvisational while still drawing from certain dance steps. The basic units in solo dance are the heel and the toe of the foot. Tapping or lifting them from the ground at different times creates different rhythms, from a simple shuffle to more complex combinations of steps. Some styles involve dancing with feet closer to the ground, which is present in African American, Native American, and Irish Sean-nós dance traditions. Other styles from northern Europe use steps that are higher off the ground and more percussive, using the aid of wooden shoes—hence the term “clogging.” Some steps even mimic work activities, like planting potatoes or hoeing corn. Certainly solo dance can be social, trading steps with other individuals, or competitive, as in “jigging contests” or “hoe-downs” where people compete to show their best dance steps. You can get creative with how you incorporate movement into your dance, so long as it matches the rhythm of the music!
Miss Moonshine flatfooting to Flop-eared Mule, played by the Stone Mountain Wobblers
Group Percussive Dance
Dance traditions change over time, adapting to developments in community and technology. As square dancing became less of a community activity in the twentieth century, performance settings gave group dancing a new life on the stage. The development of amplification systems made it more difficult to hear the sound of the dancers’ steps, so metal-soled tap shoes became more common to account for volume. Group dancing on a stage changed the shape of dances to face outwards towards an audience, rather than facing inwards like in community settings of square and contra dances. The first competition for square dancing took place at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville, North Carolina (formally beginning in 1930). Elements of synchronization, percussive footwork, and uniform costumes have become key to a successful group dance performance. It is easy to see how dance might become a sport, requiring lots of practice with a team to compete against other teams. Precision clogging teams like PowerTaps in Woodstock, Georgia and Spitfire Cloggers in Clarkesville, Georgia compete at events worldwide to showcase their contemporary approach to group dance.
PowerTaps precision clogging team competition performance at Dollywood
REFERENCES
Jamison, Phil. Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015.