This is an article on the dance edited by a one-time (sorely missed) regular contributor to this forum, Azizi Powell
Jim Carroll

Tuesday, May 28, 2013
The Pigeon Wing, The Buck & Wing, and Buck Dancing (information & videos)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part series on the 19th century dance known as the "buck & wing", and "buck jumping" dances that derived from it.
Part I provides information about & video demonstrations of buck & wing, buck dancing, and several wing movements in tap dancing.
Part II of this series features information & comments about "buck jumping", a style of dancing that is closely associated with members of New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs & New Orleans second line paraders.
PART TWO for Part II.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owner.

Disclaimer: I'm not a dancer or a dance historian. My comments are shared in the interest of eliciting more information & opinions about this subject.

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INFORMATION ABOUT BUCK & WING AND BUCK DANCING
These comments are posted in no particular order & are given numbers for referral purposes only.

Notice the different descriptions in these quotes about what a "wing" was. My take on these descriptions was that the wing started out as flapping the arms and minstrelsy & vaudeville changed it to flapping a leg.
Comment #1: Tap roots: The Early History Of Tap Dancing
by Mark Knowles (McFarland & Company Jefferson, North Carolina May 2002)
Page 44
"Old style buck dancing consisted mainly of stamps and chugs, sometimes embellished with toe bounces. The origins of buck dancing are unclear, but sources indicate that it has many elements in common with the Cherokee stomp dance. There is conjecture that it is also related to the ceremonial dances in which Indians braves would put on the antlers and skin of a male deer...

One of the most popular buck dances among African American slaves was the pigeon wing (also called the chicken wing), When performing the pigeon wing, dancers strutted like a bird and scrapped their feet, while their arms bent at the sides, were flapped like wings. When interviewed for the Virginia's Writers Project, ex-slave Fannie Berry described the pigeon wing thus:
"Dere was cuttin' de pigeon wings-dat was flippin' you arms an legs roun' an' holdin ya neck stiff like a bird do." "

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Comment #2: Lynne Fauley Emery's 1989 book Black Dance: From 1619 to Today(page 90):
"The Pigeon Wing appears to have been performed over a large geographical area. References were made to the Pigeon Wing from South Carolina to Texas, and from Indiana to Mississippi. Horace Overstreet, of Beaumont, Texas, remembered the dance by another name. Overstreet stated that on Christmas and July 4, a big dance would be held on their plantation. '...jus' a reg'lar old breakdown dance. Some was dancin' Swing de Corner, and some in de middle de floor cuttin' de chicken wing.' ...

The Pigeon Wing and the Buck dance appear as authentic dances of the Negro on the plantation, much before they were picked up for the minstrel shows and billed as the "Buck and Wing"."

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Comment #3: From http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3buckw1.htm
"Buck dancing is a pre-tap dance routine that was done by Minstrels and Vaudeville performers in the mid nineteenth century portraying the African American males known as "bucks." Originally, the pigeon wing step (foot shaking in the air) was a big part of this early folk dance but later separated when variations began such as the shooting out of one leg making a "Wing"....

The legendary dancer "Master Juba"* did a buck and a wing in the 1840s. It was said that the first buck & wing routine was performed on the New York stage in 1880 by James McIntrye as well as inventing the "Syncopated Buck & Wing"…

The Buck and Wing was adapted to the Minstrel stage from the recreational clogs and shuffles of African Americans...

Buck: Rhythm and Percussive. Originally just a stamping of the feet to interpret the music which later became much more refined when mixed with the Jig and Clog. Buck dancers danced alone and in a small area of space...

Flatfoot is mostly Buck dancing... but much more laid back in which the soles of the feet stay very close to the floor and without the soles of the dancers' shoes making much noise, nor stomping. The flatfoot dancer seems relaxed and carefree while he or she dances, even though the feet are constantly moving. If you can imagine a "soft shoe" Buck dance. This dance is a spot dance (done in place) with the arms moving only slightly to flow with the dancer's balance giving them a fluid look. If more than one person wants to dance at the same time, they each dance individually, i.e. "freestyle", but still adhere to the rhythm of the music being played...

Pigeon wing (1830s) was originally just shaking one foot in the air...
-snip-
*"Master Juba" was Black. My assumption is that James McIntrye was also Black.

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Comment #4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogging
"Solo dancing (outside the context of the big circle dance) is known in various places as buck dance, flatfooting, hoedown, jigging, sure-footing, and stepping…One source states that buck dancing was the earliest combination of the basic shuffle and tap steps performed to syncopated rhythms in which accents are placed not on the straight beat, as with the jigs, clogs, and other dances of European origin, but on the downbeat or offbeat, a style derived primarily from the rhythms of African tribal music.[16]
Buck dancing was popularized in America by minstrel performers in the late 19th century. Many folk festivals and fairs utilize dancing clubs or teams to perform both Buck and regular clogging for entertainment.
Traditional Appalachian clogging is characterized by loose, often bent knees and a "drag-slide" motion of the foot across the floor, and is usually performed to old-time music."
BUCK and WiING