![]() It’s really all about the sound, and most flatfooters don’t do anything fancy with their arms–there’s a real economy of motion. (And given that Appalachian history has long been white-washed, it’s worth emphasizing here the huge role that African-American artists played in both music and dance from the region.) Flatfootingįlatfooting is a low, close-to-the floor style of dance that focuses on making rhythms that go along with the music, usually an old-time dance tune. Although there isn’t a ton of recorded history, many scholars believe that steps from the British Isles, Africa, and the indigenous peoples of the US all likely wove their way into the mix. ![]() Like the rest of Appalachian culture, the musical and dance forms of the region evolved over time and with many influences. (Just as I didn’t learn to group music into “bluegrass” and “old-time” categories when I was growing up–it was all “music”!) But since people often mean different things by each term, I’ll go over them here. ![]() I’ll start by saying that, where I’m from in the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky, we never made much distinction between the styles, and mainly just called it all “dancing”. So what IS the difference? The answer is both simple and complex. I teach traditional dance of the Appalachian Mountains, and one of the of the first questions I often get asked in my classes is, “What’s the difference between clogging and flatfooting?” Buck dance is another name that you often hear for this group of related forms.
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