<P> As with other blackface material, performances of "Dixie" were accompanied by dancing . The song is a walkaround, which originally began with a few minstrels acting out the lyrics, only to be joined by the rest of the company (a dozen or so individuals for the Bryants). As shown by the original sheet music (see below), the dance tune used with "Dixie" by Bryant's Minstrels, who introduced the song on the New York stage, was "Albany Beef", an Irish - style reel later included by Dan Emmett in an instructional book he co-authored in 1862 . Dancers probably performed between verses, and a single dancer used the fiddle solo at the end of the song to "strut, twirl his cane, or mustache, and perhaps slyly wink at a girl on the front row ." </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> "Dixie" 1916 rendition of Dixie by the Metropolitan Mixed Chorus with Ada Jones and Billy Murray "Dixie's Land" Civil War soldiers favored both war versions of the song and the original lyrics, as heard here . This performance is by Civil War re-enactors, the 2nd South Carolina String Band . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing these files? See media help . </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> "Dixie" 1916 rendition of Dixie by the Metropolitan Mixed Chorus with Ada Jones and Billy Murray "Dixie's Land" Civil War soldiers favored both war versions of the song and the original lyrics, as heard here . This performance is by Civil War re-enactors, the 2nd South Carolina String Band . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing these files? See media help . </Td> </Tr>

Away down south in the land of traitors rattlesnakes and alligators