Category Archives: Folk Dance

The Stanky Leg

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Detroit, Michigan
Performance Date: 04/21/2017
Primary Language: English

Main piece: The stanky leg is a dance for smooth hip hop. What you do is you you leave one of your legs still and you bring the other leg close to that one by bending you knee. You start alternating legs and it will look like you are smooth and going with the flow. You can also bring you hands in the mix, waving them around in free flowing motion.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Troy is from Detroit, Michigan, where hip hop is a large part of the musical scene. This move is a classic when dancing to hip hop, and it has been popular since the genre’s origins in America. It’s partly based on the moves of Rock and Roll figures like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, but has been adapted to have a more relaxed look to it that fits the tune of smooth hip hop.

Context on the piece: The stanky leg is usually performed in a hip hop dance party when the music gets slow, and it has the purpose of seduction. Men usually dance the stanky leg to smooth hip hop to show themselves as relaxed and smooth, something that they think the females of the dances will notice and appreciate. It is meant to make women comfortable with the relaxed feeling, and this can lead to them getting close to the women and asking to dance with them. Sometimes, the roles are inverted with the women dancing the stanky leg to captivate the men, but its usually the males doing it. It can also be danced with no intentions of seduction just to feel more relaxed during the dancing session, and it is common that lone stanky leg dancer consume inhibiting drugs such as cannabis to help them with the relaxed motion of the dance.

Thoughts on the piece: Even though Hip Hop is a fairly modern brand of music, this dance move shows that the genre still follows many of the traditions of folkloric music. It is common for cultures across the world to have mating dances in which a member of one gender will attract the other with some sort of sensual move that shows confidence or implies sex, and this is no exception. It is the male equivalence in Hip Hop of twerking, in which the females move their bottom up and down to stimulate sexual desire. Although the stanky leg doesn’t necessarily have any specific sexual movement, it is meant to simulate a safe and relaxed environment for the females, for which it is considered a seduction/mating dance.

Garba

Nationality: Indian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: April 24, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi, Tamil

My informant is a young Indian-American woman who is well-versed in the customs of her culture and frequently participates in these traditions. She told me about Garba, a traditional Indian dance.

Garba is a non-choreographed dance celebration usually performed during the festival of Navratri (based on the Hindi words for nine + nights). Garba is typically performed by North Indians and Gujaratis but is sometimes celebrated by Punjabis.

Garba usually celebrates the Hindu goddess Durga, who is considered to be the main mother of creation. It consists of two circles, one in the center of the other, with an idol inside the inner circle. The inner circle is supposed to represent the womb of the universe, while the circles represent time because the Hindu concept of time is cyclical due to reincarnation. The dancers are always switching dance partners, so they are constantly moving.

The traditional outfit worn during Garba is a chaniya choli: a top that sometimes has a vest or jacket, with a long skirt and a scarf. People come to this celebration dressed up in bright colors and the women wear lots of nice jewelry – essentially people choose to come dressed up and looking their best.

The version of this dance that my informant is familiar with is called Dandiya. In this dance, each dancer wields two wooden sticks roughly 2cm in diameter and 1.5ft in length. Sometimes these sticks are decorated but they are usually plain. Two people act as dance partners and hit each other’s sticks together: first one stick, then the other, then both, then they spin, and then move on to the next person. This is the basic movement, but people tend to improvise in fancier patterns so their partner has to keep up (my informant jokingly told me that this is why North Indians tend to be good dancers). This style of Garba (also known as dandiya-raas) is associated with Krishna. “Raas” means play/dance. This style is supposed to imitate a sword fight.

I am glad that my informant knows so much about the symbolism behind this dance, as it adds so much more depth and beauty to the understanding of this practice. I also find it interesting that there is a rendition that combines the idea of creation and the flow of time with battle.

Romanian Bear Dance

Nationality: Romanian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: April 26, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Romanian

My informant is the daughter of Romanian immigrants. She has spent much of her childhood visiting relatives in Romania, in an area that she describes as “Romanian hick country”.

There is a traditional Romanian dance known simply as the Bear Dance, in which Romanian men dress themselves in real bear skins and dance through the streets of their town. This tradition takes place some time between Christmas and the new year, as a way to ward off evil spirits and welcome in a safe and prosperous new year. Everyone in the town comes out and watches this dance, even though it is the dead of winter and freezing cold. Romanian winters are similar to Russian winters, and these people are not dressed in the heaviest of clothing. My informant speculates that this was most likely a pagan celebration that has over time become “Christianized” as a holiday ritual.

I’m curious as to how these people acquire so many bear skins – I asked my informant and she admitted that she had no idea.

Chinese folk dance

Nationality: China
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: U.S.
Performance Date: April 2, 2017
Primary Language: English

This friend of mine [Noted as W] is a dance enthusiast, and she provided a clip of her performance of Chinese dance. 

The interview:

Me: So, what are the significant features of Chinese dance?

W: For staters, you’re wearing those traditional clothes. There are some featuring movements I could share with you though. The primary movements are mostly jumping, leaping, turning, and flipping. I think flipping is the most distinct movement among the all, where you need to do some tumbling movements, or circling your torso around your waist, something like that. The turnings are also important. There is a rule that whatever direction you intend to move at, you should go to the opposite first. For example, if you’re going to move your hand to the left, you should go right first for a little bit to give the audience a false impression, like what I did in the video at 00:06. This rule applies to almost every Chinese dance. I couldn’t really describe it, other than how it’s performed and those technical movements, it’s also imbedded in the feels and spirit of the performers.

Thoughts:

The dance my friend performed turns out to be a dance re-choreographed from the original a folk dance. However, it would still be regarded as a traditional Chinese dance. There are countless folk dances in China, what characterized them into the genre of Chinese dance are those movements and the aura the dance brought out, but not the dance itself.

Electric Slide Dance

Nationality: African American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Performance Date: April 27, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant is an African-American from Dallas, Texas.

“We dance the Electric Slide when we gather together. Whenever music starts, we do that. But usually it’s happening during the big gathering like party, graduation or wedding. I don’t know why we do that, but ever since I had memory I started doing that with other African-American people, anybody any age.  I like doing that, it’s really fun!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mOY2eWO2qw

He also mentioned that this dance is pretty exclusive to African-American, not the African immigrants in US. Since they’re more like a group fused with pieces of African cultures, it seems like they created a new culture after they lived on this land. I find that even though those cultures could be lost, but what built in their genes, in this case the talent of dancing and singing in people originated from Africa, are strong enough to revive a new culture.