Category Archives: Folk Dance

Folk Dance

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 47
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Tagalog
Language: English

Bamboo Dance—Tinikling

This is done both as a dance and as a game.  Two people hold each end of two bamboo poles and beat the pole on the ground in repetitions of three.  The first two beats are done with the poles apart, and on the third the poles are brought together.  The dancer does series of foot movements to compliment the rhythmic beating of the poles.  The most basic foot movement are as follows:

First beat: One hop on one foot in between the poles

Second beat: One hop, bring the second foot in to meet the first

Third beat: Jump back on to one foot, jumping back to the outside of the poles as they have now been brought together

The informant described this as quite a prevalent practice.  It can be done as elaborately as possible, with women in costume balancing glasses with candles in them in their hands and on their head.  Or one can find young girls and boys playing this at any given time of the day, more to resemble an American tradition of “double dutch” jump-roping.  It can be played with one dancer, partners, or as many dancers as will fit across the poles.

The informant did not know the history of the dance, or was aware of any details as to its origin.  With a bit of internet research, I found many versions of stories and places of origins, ranging from imitations by peasants of birds, to something involving field workers during Spanish colonization.  I think that this discrepancy in itself emphasizes the significance of the practice itself, in isolation from whatever history it may have.  Additionally, because this is such a widely practiced activity among all ages, regions and social groups, its accessibility lessens the necessity of an explanation.  This is not a tradition that comes out only on special days or to commemorate some historically significant occurance, it does not require special training or practice (although there are obvious different degrees of complexity), it is something anyone on any day.  It is a national game of the Philippines not because of historical significance, but is truly national  because of  ongoing popularity and accessibility by all.

Annotation:  There is an encyclopedia Brittanica entry on Tinikling that can be found with the following link:

tinikling.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 26 Apr. 2007  <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9072567>.

Narrative-New Mexico

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Villa Park, CA
Performance Date: April 6, 2011
Primary Language: English

“She lived in a small town, Magdalena, New Mexico, where there wasn’t much going on. There was a Navajo reservation not far from there, and she and her friends used to go there. They had a strange but lucrative experience. The Native American Navajo men would pay women to dance with them. This was probably in the 1940’s, when my mom was in her early 20’s. She and her friends would be paid 10 cents a dance, and I believe that it was traditional native dancing around the fire. They always had fun, and left with lots of dimes!”

            Jennifer Mizban is a homemaker who was born in New Mexico and moved to California where she lives today. She told me this story about her mother while remembering her past. She remembered this narrative her mother provided that outlined a tradition in which natives and non-natives to New Mexico interacted with each other. The natives had modified their tradition to facilitate this interaction.

            This is an example of hybridization of cultures. The non-natives learned the natives’ dance, while the natives used dimes to dance with the non-natives, who surely infused the new dance style with their own flavor. In this case, a new tradition was made.

Hardcore folk dancing

Nationality: Italian,
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: White Planes NY
Performance Date: 20 April 2011
Primary Language: English

Unwritten rules to hardcore concerts

  1. Don’t wear the tshirt of the band you are seeing
  2. When a mosh pit is being started clear off as many people as possible
  3. When standing around a mosh pit keep your hands in front of your face
  4. When someone falls down in the pit pick them up as quickly as possible
  5. Purposely hitting someone is looked down upon but accidents happen.

Tristan likes these concerts because everyone knows these rules and looks out for each other. This makes the concert a place where Tristan feels very comfortable and connects him to the music. Tristan says he’s not scared of getting hit or trampled, getting hit comes with the territory and he trusts the crowd to protect him. Tristan will continue hardcore dancing and actively participating in that subculture.

Tristan’s unwritten rules are important to him because he is passing on the traditional dancing associated with the hardcore genre. This is a classic example of folk dancing and folk customs. This type of dancing is a communal experience in which everyone swings punches while looking out for each other. If you observe this type of dance, as an outsider it would look like everyone was drunk, and fighting. To an insider, the display is an amazing expression of the music. The dancing represents the rage that the music conveys.

Tim Perille

18

1027 W. 34th St. Los Angele CA

Danish Christmas Dance

Nationality: Danish
Age: 18
Occupation: Student at Copenhagen Business School
Residence: Copenhagen, Denmark
Performance Date: December 23rd, 2010
Primary Language: Danish
Language: Italian, English, Spanish

“In Denmark it’s tradition to get a Christmas tree, and after dinner, before we open our presents we sing a bunch of Christmas songs, and while we are singing the whole family/friends, whoever, hold hands and dance around the tree.

I learnt it at Christmas when I was really small, from my parents and the rest of the family, and I like it very much because it’s cozy and it brings everyone together, drifts attention from solely opening presents, which is purely materialistic. It means a lot to me, family bonding time.”

Eva talked very fondly of this Christmas experience in Denmark. She says she does it every year, though until now she has spent most of her Christmases in Rome, Italy. Though she was not surrounded by Danish experiences when younger, she says keeping traditions like this is what, she feels, makes her an authentic Danish person. Considering my experience with Danish people, I am not surprised that their traditions involve singing and dancing around. From the ones I have met, I find that Danish people are friendly, outgoing, and very fun loving. Eva’s family has almost become my family, and so I was extremely happy when I got to spend Christmas with them this past year. Experiencing this tradition first hand I couldn’t help but feel engulfed by both Christmas spirit and pure joy. I think that by holding hands you truly embrace the meaning of unity during Christmas, as well as the importance of family. By singing it shows the true symbolism of celebrating Christmas, which is of course celebrating the birth of Jesus. Considering that it is dancing around a tree, I see a little paganism in it. However I don’t know enough about the actual Christmas holiday versus Denmark’s pagan influences to decide whether it is part of Christmas that is perhaps more Pagan than Christian or whether it is this tradition that is perhaps more Pagan than Christian.

I was impressed by Eva’s insight regarding this tradition as drifting attention from the materialistic part, as sometimes I feel that for many children, Christmas tree equals presents, and here is a tradition, happily practiced since childhood, that adds another role to this beautiful tree, and this is a purely spiritual one, the togetherness.

This tradition is mentioned in a book, a journal of European Ethnology.

Pedersen, Marriane H. “Making Traditions in a New Society.” Ethnologia Europaea. Museum Tusculanum, 2007. 7. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.

“Ride the Pony”

Age: 19
Residence: Reno, Nevada

Interview:

Willie:“you have at least like fifteen people, about 5%, get in a circle, and they ride the pony and they do the traditional thing, like ride the pony (gestures with his hands, like he’s holding a laso and reins, galloping motions) and you run around the circle of people and …it’s like a warble…its ‘here we go, ride that pony, ride around that big fat pony, this is how do it.’ And then you like stop if your in the middle and look to the person on the outside of the circle and then go ‘front to front to front my baby,’ all while getting all up in eachother’s business.. and then ‘back to back to back my baby, side to side to side my baby…this is how we do it!’ and then they go in the middle and you keep going until everyone gets in the middle.”

Me: And what do you think about it

Willie: “i really like it, you know, it’s like stupid fun, and everyone is doing it and being stupid and it’s like a great time”

Willie learned this game on a leadership retreat. Group humiliation is one way to form a fast bond with a new group of people. Also, just “being stupid” and having fun promotes a sense of unity within a leadership group.

This game forces people to get “all up in each other’s business,” forcing people to feel more comfortable, and break the personal boundaries. Breaking down these boundaries is meant to facilitate cooperative work and sharing.