Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics is an in-depth exploration of the evolution of Appalachian dance traditions. Taking a historical approach, Phil Jamison looks closely at dance forms and styles that are indigenous to the Appalachian region and at those that have influenced or have been influenced by regional dance. Each chapter focusses on one topic and delves into it with great detail and substantial documentation. Together the chapters reveal a multifaceted process in the development of local traditions. Throughout, Jamison's long-standing love of these kinds of dance shines through. He writes with a direct, personal, engaging style that is appropriate for discussion of a traditional community-based art form.
Researching traditional dance history can be difficult, because, unlike dance performance or the dancing of elite society, the participants rarely wrote about their own dancing. But Jamison, a true historian, sleuths out the earliest references relevant to each kind of dance, going back to the sixteenth century in some cases. His perseverance as a researcher has led him to a wealth of primary sources and to observations by little-known writers. It is satisfying to “hear” voices spanning several centuries recounting their experiences with dance that is related in form, structure, or style to dancing of the Appalachian region. In addition, Jamison interviews individuals and draws upon his own extensive experience with Appalachian dance.
Careful descriptions appear throughout the book, making clear distinctions among dance forms and styles. Jamison begins the book with delineation of the features of a typical Appalachian square dance, clarifying differences between this and related forms of dance such as contra dancing and modern western square dancing, important for newcomers to the subject to appreciate. In a subsequent chapter, his depictions of social dances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as cotillions, quadrilles, and the boulangere, distinguish elements that later appeared in Appalachian square dance. The many interesting and informative images taken from Harpers’ Weekly covers, photographs dating to the nineteenth century, call book covers, and fine-art pieces further illustrate his explanations.
Every chapter is illuminating, but four are particularly noteworthy. Chapter 3, humorously titled “Square Roots,” comprehensively explores an array of movement sources of Appalachian square dance as it emerged in the late nineteenth century. For example, it identifies the contributions of eighteenth-century dancing masters and pinpoints the 1830s as the first time that “change-partner” figures appeared at mountain resorts. Chapter 4 documents in detail the evolution of dance calling beginning in the 1700s, emphasizing the African American influence in this development.
In chapter 7, Jamison employs an unusual strategy. He studied ninety-five 78 rpm records of “barn dances with calls,” identifying instrumentation and calling styles, mapping them, and analyzing them by region. As a result he determined regional differences in calling style, choice of figures, and dance formation, noting, for example, that West Virginia and Kentucky callers use a rhyming patter not seen in north Georgia or western North Carolina. Chapter 12 investigates Appalachian step dancing. Citing references dating back four centuries, he establishes the impact of social dances of the common person, of the French court, and of early American theatrical dance, and demonstrates the evolution of step dancing in American social dance. For example, a step called the pigeon wing, introduced by John Durang in the late 1700s, had, by the 1840s, become a regular element both in minstrel shows and in rural Tennessee social dance.
As the book draws to a close, sketches of three community dances illustrate how all of these strands come together in specific settings. The final chapter, “American Square Dance,” makes the point that square dancing means different things to different people. For some it brings about hillbilly stereotypes, for others cowboy images, and today for most people any image of square dance ignores the significant contributions of black people over the course of centuries. The discussion which concludes this chapter concerns a repeated drive to declare square dance the national folk dance of the United States, and raises philosophical questions that are grounded in the multiple connotations of square dance and in its complex background.
An overarching theme in Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics is that Appalachian dance and culture, while having certain identifiable characteristics, are part of the whole fabric of American culture, and especially the culture of the southeastern states. Although every chapter is focussed on Appalachian dance, there are many references to dance outside the region that is similar to, or that influenced, Appalachian dance. The evidence accumulates from one chapter to the next, revealing the continual exchange among cultural groups and between social dance and performance dance.
