Phil Jamison presents:
“Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance”

Thursday August 27 at 8:00pm.

The southern Appalachian square dance is a hybrid dance form that developed in the American South during the nineteenth century, and like the Appalachian musical traditions, these dances reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the region. In this virtual social, we will examine the multicultural roots and historical development of these dances and identify the components of earlier European, African, and Native American dance forms that combined to make them uniquely American.

Thank you to the 110+ people who joined us on Zoom and Facebook. Recordings of Phil's talk are available:

Phil Jamison is nationally known as a dance caller, old-time musician, flatfoot dancer, and scholar of traditional Appalachian dance. A 2017 inductee to the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, he has called dances, performed, and taught at music festivals and dance events throughout the U.S. and overseas since the early 1970s. For forty years, he was a member of the Green Grass Cloggers.

Over the last thirty years, Jamison has done extensive research in the area of Appalachian dance. His book, Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance (University of Illinois Press, 2015) tells the story behind the square dances, step dances, reels, and other forms of dance practiced in southern Appalachia. He has given numerous presentations on Appalachian dance – from the Smithsonian Institution to Beijing, China. He teaches Appalachian music and dance at Warren Wilson College, in Asheville, North Carolina, where for twenty-five years, he served as coordinator of the Old-Time Music and Dance Week at the Swannanoa Gathering. http://www.philjamison.com/