Footage of Horace Sprott performing the "Buck Dance"
date: label: Date
content: mid 20th century
name: label: Subject of
content: Horace Sprott, American, 1899 - ca. 1992
label: Owned by
content: Ernie Smith, American, ca. 1925 - 2004
notes: label: Description
content: A 16mm film print with people dancing to skiffle music and Horace Sprott doing the buck dance. It consists of a single reel of positive, black-and-white, 16 mm acetate film with bilateral variable-area optical sound. In the film, women and children can be seen watching men doing the buck dance as various percussive instruments are heard in the background. Voiceover narration accompanies the picture. At one point, the narrator says, "They call it skiffle music. Step dancing goes back to the formal dances held in the big house on the plantations, from polished floors to bare earth. The buck dance, there are few who can do it well.” Men and women dance in an open field as the narrator speaks. The women leave the field and the narrator continues with "The buck dance is the exclusive property of the male dancer, a sort of show-off piece in which he exhibits masculine strength and prowess." Four men remain in the clearing: two of them clap their hands and stomp their feet, while a third plays a guitar. The fourth man, Horace Sprott, demonstrates the buck dance. At one point, the men say, "now wag your tail" and Sprott mimics the movement. Their audience laughs. At the end of his performance, Horace Sprott makes and inaudible comment, then says, "I've travelled all around," to which the narrator responds, "And Horace did travel around. It was in traveling that the music really picked up a new dimension, just as men had come into town after emancipation and found others with whom they could talk, the music…" The film ends before he completes the statement.
place: label: Place depicted
content: United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: American South
label: Topic
content: Dance
label: Topic
content: Film
label: Topic
content: Folklife
label: Topic
content: Jazz (Music)
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Time-based Media - Moving Images
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Anonymous Gift in memory of Ernest (Ernie) R. Smith, Jazz Historian
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2015.275.30.1a
objectType: label: Type
content: sound films
label: Type
content: black-and-white films (visual works)
label: Type
content: 16mm (photographic film size)
label: Type
content: film clips
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Restrictions likely apply. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acetate film
label: Dimensions
content: Duration (digital file): 00:06:00
label: Dimensions
content: Physical extent (film): 280 ft