Thomas Maupin, of Murfreesboro, is widely considered Tennessee’s most gifted practitioner of flatfoot buck dancing. He is the winner of over 60 first place awards in contests across the region and in 2017, was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Buck dancing is a percussive dance similar to, but older than, tap dance and clogging. It traces its roots to an early American melding of Scots Irish step dance with African American dance and rhythm.
Born in 1938 in rural Eagleville, Tennessee, Thomas was surrounded by dancers on both sides of his family. Along with older relatives and his nine brothers and sisters, he “traded steps” as a child at domestic and community square dances. His maternal grandmother, Will, lived with the family and danced in a flatfoot—often barefoot—unadorned country style. Her influence on Thomas was strong, and today, more than her movement, it is her sound—the metric thud of heel meeting wooden floor—that he remembers. As Thomas entered adulthood, rural dances waned. Once married with children and employed in an aircraft factory, he took a 15-year hiatus from dancing.
“I grew up in a large farming family full of dancers,” Thomas says. “I can still remember the sound of my grandmother’s bare heels hitting the floor, right on top of the beat. That made a big impact on me.” He learned the basics of this improvisational dance form as a child and continued to hone his skills throughout his life. Often performed spontaneously on a wooden plank that the dancer carries to events, buck dancing is increasingly becoming supplanted by choreographed clogging. Thomas states, “Buck dance is typically done with the feet closer to the floor, focusing on sound rather than acrobatics, trying to match the note values of the music.”
In 2018, Jake Fennell of Dickson, apprenticed with Thomas as part of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Jake was already an outstanding and smooth young buck dancer with “his own body style.” Born into a middle Tennessee dance family, Fennell has been dancing on stage and competing in contests since age six. Now seven years later, Jake is still following in Thomas’s footsteps and keeping the tradition alive in his community. Jake speaks to the importance of keeping this tradition alive: “I believe it is important to preserve and pass down this dance form in order to keep it alive. This dance form has taught me more than just dance, including life lessons, kindness, and how to be a better person to others. As for this dance, its presence in our community is quickly diminishing. Fewer and fewer people are teaching it and fewer and fewer people are wishing to learn it.”
As part of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program this year, Jake will join Thomas in teaching apprentice Colette Rainwater. Colette began dancing a couple years ago after observing some of Thomas’s students dance around the state, including his namesake festival, Maupinfest. She states, “I quickly fell in love with this form of dance when I found it, and I now spend a lot of my time learning and perfecting my craft.” She hopes to hone her skills through an apprenticeship with Thomas and Jake. She explains, “This is part of who we are as Tennesseans, and I am excited to keep it going.”
