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Paper short abstract:

I discuss Cape Breton-based initiatives to document and record percussive step dance as cultural heritage and contrast planned with ad-hoc documenting. How useful might such initiatives be for the local community and to what extent can they trace demographic and cultural changes in the community?

Paper long abstract:

Percussive step dance and its associated ‘celtic’ music plays a vital part in the cultural and social activities of some rural communities in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, and has drawn many tourists to the area. Local consumers of the music and dance are highly knowledgeable and often either play an instrument or dance themselves. Even those that engage in neither activity know both the musical repertoire and each dancer’s style as well as the lineage of the dance steps of each dancer. Locals attend the social dances to participate, observe and to discuss the music and dance.

Since the 1980s, efforts have been made to document the music and dance through ethnographic documentation (Feintuch, Docherty, Melin), musical performance transcriptions (Dunlay and Greenberg), and increasingly, through film and social media. Often the documentation has been made by observers from outside the community although more recently, the initiative has come from within.

In this paper I will discuss Cape Breton-based creative initiatives to document and record percussive step dance as cultural heritage and will consider how useful such initiatives may or may not be for the community. I will specifically consider contrasts between planned and ad-hoc documenting and between ‘outsider’ and ‘insider’ recording. To what extent can such documenting trace demographic and cultural changes in the local community?