Dancing Outlaw on AllMovie

Jesco White likes to describe himself as one of the last great "mountain dancers"; performing in a style that resembles a midway point between tap dancing and clogging, Jesco learned his steps from his father, Donald Ray White, who was once among the best known and most respected folk dancers in West Virginia's Boone County. When Donald was murdered, Jesco literally filled his shoes, but his life often resembles a rickety bridge between the turn of the century and the present day; while Jesco's dancing provides a link back to the cultural heritage of life in rural West Virginia, he also performs as an Elvis Presely impersonator, will dance to Southern boogie rock as readily as "The Wild Wood Flower," and has earned a reputation as a hell-raising wild man with a bottomless appetite for drugs and alcohol. Jacob Young, a West Virginia filmmaker with a gift for documenting the lives of the distinctive and eccentric, interviewed Jesco and his family in 1991, recorded several of his performances, and captured a taste of life along the margins in Boone County. The result was Dancing Outlaw, a short documentary produced for West Virginia public television, in which Jesco shows off his dance steps, discusses his combative relationship with his wife, relates the harrowing details of his adventures with drugs, and explains how the spirit of Elvis helped save him. While PBS opted not to pick up Dancing Outlaw for nationwide broadcast, the film quickly developed a cult reputation through regional telecasts, and Jesco White became something of a folk hero among enthusiasts of American cultural marginalia. Roseanne and Tom Arnold were fans who invited Jesco to appear as a guest on their television series Roseanne; Jacob Young and his crew tagged along to film Jesco's adventures in Los Angeles, which resulted in a sequel, Dancing Outlaw II: Jesco Goes to Hollywood.