Phil Jamison will be leading a Flatfoot mountain dance workshop and dance at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center on Saturday, September 5 from 7 - 10pm.

Admission is $10/adults $5/K-12

The Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center is located in a restored 1926 schoolhouse in Stecoah (Graham County) about halfway between Bryson City and Fontana Dam off Hwy 28. The dance will take place in the old rock gymnasium.

This dance workshop & dance is part of the Stecoah Mountain Music Convention, with instrument (banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin) and band (bluegrass, old-time, gospel) competitions, and jamming over Labor Day Weekend.

Camping packages are available that include admission to all weekend events at Stecoah.
We have 10 acre grounds, historic auditorium, outdoor pavilion, and a commercial kitchen from some great food concessions.

More information on our website at http://www.stecoahvalleycenter.com
or call 828-479-3364.

Thanks for posting this. Phil Jamison is an outstanding flatfoot dancer and musician, as well as the program coordinator for Old-Time Music and Dance Week at Swannanoa Gathering. This sounds like a great event for anyone interested in traditional old-time music and dancing.

Stecoah, I have a question about this. The website shows this as “An Appalachian Evening concert featuring Phil Jamison & New Southern Ramblers. 7:30 pm.” Is this the same as the flatfooting workshop and dance you’re talking about, or is that something different?

We actually have two events with Phil Jamison coming up.

1. Saturday, August 15: Phil Jamison and the New Southern Ramblers perform on stage for our An Appalachian Evening concert series. We have a 340 seat historic air-conditioned auditorium with great acoustics. Tickets are $10 - available online or over the phone at 828-479-3364.

2. Saturday, September 5: Phil is coming back with “some musicians”, to conduct our dance workshop and he’ll call the dance in the old gymnasium. This is part of our Mountain Music Convention.

I guess I should have paid attention to the dates. I was looking at the August event instead of the one in September that you had posted about. Thanks for the clarification.

Stecoah - 11 August 2009 03:32 PM

...Phil is coming back with “some musicians”, to conduct our dance workshop and he’ll call the dance in the old gymnasium. This is part of our Mountain Music Convention.

I have another question. When you say he’ll “call” the dance, that sounds like a square dance, whereas flatfooting is usually done solo. So, is this a flatfoot workshop, a square dance, or both?

Kriss,

I’m a serious novice of the whole thing, but I spoke to Phil on Saturday when they came here and played. It is definitely not square dancing, not clogging, not contra dancing. It is “buck dancing” or “flatfoot dancing”.

My impression is that you dance individually, but the calls get people in some kind of synchrony.  They did some demonstrations on Saturday night on our wooden stage—nice percussive sounds with the footwork!

Guess it’s a good thing we’re having a little instructional workshop before the dance starts!

Stecoah - 17 August 2009 02:33 PM

...I’m a serious novice of the whole thing, but I spoke to Phil on Saturday when they came here and played. It is definitely not square dancing, not clogging, not contra dancing. It is “buck dancing” or “flatfoot dancing”.

My impression is that you dance individually, but the calls get people in some kind of synchrony.  They did some demonstrations on Saturday night on our wooden stage—nice percussive sounds with the footwork!

OK, thanks for the clarification. Depending on who you’re talking to, flatfoot dancing and buck dancing are terms sometimes used interchangeably. On the other hand, some people, especially cloggers, consider buck dancing as a type of clogging where extra heel and toe sounds are thrown in. I think buck dancing, for some people, may mean just any kind of solo freestyle dancing to old-time or bluegrass music, regardless of what individual style it may be. It could be just somebody out there doing clogging steps, not necessarily flatfooting. I think most people who actually do flatfoot dancing call it flatfoot dancing, or just flatfooting.

As to the “calls” you mentioned, I’m still not sure what that means. Flatfooters generally are not in sync at all with each other.

It sounds interesting. I’m not sure if I’ll be going or not. I know one thing. I’ve seen Phil flatfooting, and he is absolutely great at it, so I’m sure it will be a great event.