Search - Talking Feet: Solo Southern Dance - Flatfoot, Buck and Tap on DVD

Essential to Understand Black and White Old Time music and j

Tony Thomas | SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA | 12/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Old time music and the Blues and most of the instrumental folk music of the Southeast(most of the rest of this planet)comes from music for people to dance to. A rich heritage of dance came to this country from both Africa and Europe, and once here, folks combined the many strains of music and created a lot of their own. The last stages of this tradition were caught by Mike Seeger in making this wonderful film. It belongs in every home.

In it you can see a grizzled old white mountaineer from North Carolina, doing an animal dance on his front porch, the kind of dance that friends of mine have videotaped folks doing in Mali. My favorite here is the black buck dancing done by North Carolinians, especially the great performance of a young Algia Mae Hinton playing Piedmont guitar with the guitar over her shoulder while she buck danced.

Of course, given Mike's fine eye and finer mind, there is much more than entertainment here. We are introduced people who tell their stories of old time dance and music in their lives. We are told the history. We meet people and times, not just see dancing. You need to get the companion book of the same name which includes more explanations and even diagrams of the dancing.

As a player of guitar, banjo, and awful fiddle in old time music and as a musicologist who writes about the evolution of the music, the knowledge recorded in this DVD and book are simply irreplacable. This DVD belongs in every home"