My original List was eaten by FB in their constant changes to pages so here is a quickly compiled list of books I recommend for people looking to study Black vernacular dance (with a special emphasis on Blues).

  • Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts by Brenda Dixon Gottschild
  • The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool by Brenda Dixon Gottschild
  • Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall Winslow Stearns
  • Stomping The Blues by Albert Murray
  • TAP! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories 1900-1955 by Rusty E. Frank
  • The Souls of Your Feet: A Tap Dance Guidebook for Rhythm Explorers by Acia Gray
  • Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance (Folklore and Society) by Jacqui Malone
  • Black Dance: From 1619 to Today by Lynne Fauley Emery
  • Black Dance in America : A History Through its People by James Haskins
  • Jookin': The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture by Katrina Hazzard-Gordon
  • African Dance: An Artistic, Historical and Philosophical Inquiry by Kariamu Welsh-Asante
  • Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (Studies in Dance History) by Thomas F. Defrantz
  • Blues People: Negro Music in White America by Leroi Jones
  • The History of the Blues: The Roots, the Music, the People by Francis Davis
  • The Devil’s Music: A History of the Blues by Giles Oakley
  • The Big Book of Blues: The Fully Revised and Updated Biographical Encyclopedia by Robert Santelli
  • All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues by Vladimir Bogdanov
  • All Music Guide to Jazz – 4th Edition by Vladimir Bogdanov
  • Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta by Robert Palmer
  • The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double Dutch to Hip-hop by Kyra D. Gaunt