Appalachian dance : creativity and continuity in six communities.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spalding, Susan Eike, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Folk dancing--Appalachian Region.

Folk dancing.

Manners and customs.

Appalachian Region--Social life and customs.

Appalachian Region.

Physical Description:

xiv, 271 pages : photographs ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Urbana, Illinois : University of Illinois Press, 2014.

Summary:

In Appalachian Dance: Creativity and Continuity in Six Communities, Susan Eike Spalding brings to bear twenty-five years' worth of rich interviews with black and white Virginians, Tennessee-ans, and Kentuckians to explore the evolution and social uses of dance in each region. Spalding analyzes how issues as disparate as industrialization around coal, plantation culture, race relations, and the 1970s folk revival influenced freestyle clogging, square dancing, and other dance forms like square dancing in profound ways. She reveals how African Americans and Native Americans, as well as European immigrants drawn to the timber mills and coal fields, brought movement styles that added to local dance vocabularies. Placing each community in its sociopolitical and economic, context, and paying particular attention to both regional and racial diversity, Spalding explores how the formal and stylistic nuances found in Appalachian dance reflect the beliefs, shared understandings, and experiences of the community at large. Written in clear and accessible prose, Appalachian Dance is a lively addition to the literature and a bold contribution to scholarship concerned with the meaning of movement and the ever-changing nature of tradition. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Dynamic Traditions 1

2 Lively Dance Currents 11

3 Old Time Dancing in Northeast Tennessee: Traditional Values in an Industrial Region 29

4 Blue Ridge Breakdown: Stability and Tradition in an African American Community 63

5 Mr. Perry's Sweet Shop and a New Old Time Dance 96

6 Dance at Pine Mountain Settlement School: Ideals and Institutions 123

7 "Rise and Shine:" Dancing for Community Development at Hoedown Island 160

8 The Carcassonne Square Dance: A True Revival 187.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0252038541

9780252038549

0252080157

9780252080159

OCLC:

877367737