Category Archives: Folk Dance

Šokių Šventė, Traditional Dance Clothing

Main Text

GD: “Šokių Šventė is the International Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival that happens once every four years, and what it is, it’s a folk celebration. So everyone dresses up in their tautiniais drabuziais which is their traditional clothing and does their hair, does their makeup. So everything is made out of wool and linen, the women traditionally wore like long skirts with aprons, obviously not floor-length as you have to go work, shirts with poofy sleeves which often had red embroidery around the wrist and a vest that matches the skirt. There are a lot of patterns in Lithuanian culture, in terms of vest and the skirt, and they would mainly distinguish where you are from.”

Background

D is a 19 year old Lithuanian-American second year student at USC studying Theatre and Classics. Her mother was born in Lithuania and moved to a Lithuanian community in New Jersey, where GD attended Lithuanian school and church. She is excited to attend Šokių Šventė for the very first time as it is being hosted in Philadelphia this year.

Context

This traditional clothing was once everyday wear for people living in Lithuania, but has now been relegated to special wear for high profile cultural events like Šokių Šventė. It is also worn at weddings and other folk celebrations.

Interviewer Analysis

JThe phenomenon of once widespread folk dances being raised up as a symbol of a culture and then relegated only to manufactured displays of “Folk Culture” is a very common occurrence. Dance trends change, especially in our modern and more global times. Taking a cultural snapshot of dance and placing it into a category of folk importance may ensure that the dance lives on, but not that it will continue being the preferred style by the people. This has happened not only with the dances performed at Šokių Šventė, but also the clothing worn to the festival.

Danza del Venado (the deer dance)

–Informant Info–

Nationality: Mexcian

Age: 31

Occupation: Lawyer

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Spanish

(Notes-The informant will be referred to DA as and the interviewer as K)

Background info: DA was born in Mexico and moved to the United States when he was 15. He would go back to Mexico to visit family, and while there saw the deer dance performed by various members of his community. While telling me about the dance, he would occasionally perform small parts of it.

K: So what’s the dance called, and what’s the context of the performance? Like when or under, uh what circumstances was it performed.

DA: Its called Danza del Venado, or the deer dance in English. There’s a few different reasons why it would be performed. After Catholicism mixed with Mexico, it was performed around Lent or Easter. When my people still hunted, it was performed before hunting to ensure success, or as a welcome to spring.

K: Ok, so whenever you’re uh…ready to tell me about it go ahead

DA: I already mentioned when it’s performed but I forget to say that it’s now, along with the easter practices, a means to communicate with the spirit world, in which deers’ spirit resides. The dance is simple; it consists of a few men who are dressed in a cloth wrapped around them like a skirt, held up with a belt made of deer hooves. He has more hooves tied to his ankles and holds dried uh…calabaza (gourds) filled with beans or rice to make large rattling sounds. They would also have deer skulls attached to their heads with red uh…Cintas (ribbon) tied around the horns. All of this is meant to sort of thank the deer and celebrate how hard it fought and ran not to be hunted. All the noise from the hooves and calabaza is like it running and us chasing, while the cinta is meant to represent flowers actually, like rebirth and growth from spring. The entire dance is a thank you to earth.

Interpretation:
This was the first folklore I had collected specifically on a dance and it was so interesting to read about. The change in the dance from how it originally was, it being dedicated to the hunt and directly to spring, to the version it became after Catholicism was introduced, with the dance now being dedicated to easter, was so interesting to hear. DA also showed me a video he had taken of his family performing the dance, so I got to see it actually be performed. It’s a beautiful dance full of color and culture. What DA did not mention is how much audience participation there is. In the video I was shown, the entire audience was chanting and singing along with the dancers, and young children were even at the front of the room dancing alongside them. People in the audience were also dressed in ribbons and a few even have a hoove or two with them.

Spanish Fruit Eating Dance

DESCRIPTION OF PERFORMANCE: Spanish music was playing. She was standing, swaying her hips back and forth. She took her right hands and gestured it upward as if grabbing something out of a tree. She twisted her hand like pulling it out and pretended to take a bite out of the imaginary object. She then pretended to wipe the object all over her body until she reached her left hip and then it a swift movement, pretended to throw the object onto the floor. 

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Female, 72, Spanish

CONTEXT: This dance is supposed to symbolize taking an apple or fruit from a tree, eating it and then throwing it away. She learned it in a dance bar in Spain growing up in the 50s. It was a somewhat known dance that she said was very sensual and attractive. It involved the hip movement of her culture’s dance and incorporated themes of Adam and Eve and the countryside. She always loved this dance and would do it constantly to different music. To her it represented femininity and her country’s beautiful dance culture. 

THOUGHTS: When I saw this dance in person I was mesmerized. I had never seen anything like it and it was interesting because I could immediately understand that she was picking a fruit from a tree, the movements were very clear yet melodic.

“Vibora de la Mar”- Mexican Wedding Dance

  1. “Vibora de la Mar”- Mexican Wedding Dance

Context: CL is a Mexican American student at USC. Her parents are from Michoacan, Mexico and her family currently resides near Bakersfield, California.

Transcript: 

CL: Okay so this is a game played at a wedding. Okay there’s two different ones: The bride gets on a chair… I’m trying to remember if it’s the bride and the groom both get on a chair, and then they carry the bride’s veil, the groom carries the bride’s veil so that people grab each other’s hands and then they go around in circles. First, it’s the women that are at the party, and then after they’re done, it’s the men that go. I think they’re objective is to try to knock down the bride and the groom… 

HV: That’s so silly goofy *laughs*. To try to knock down who?

CL: The bride and the groom. 

HV: Oh they’re praying on their downfall?

CL: Yeah, pretty much. 

HV: Is it all the single people?

CL: Yeah maybe!

HV: Why do you think they’re trying to knock down the bride and the groom? Do you think there’s a significance behind that? 

CL: *quietly* let me look it up… 

HV: That’s not fair! What do YOU think it means?

CL: I think it’s just… it could be one of two things. It could be like “oh we’re celebrating the union of you guys”. Maybe the chairs symbolize… it’s the beginning of a new era, you guys are so happy right now but eventually, it’s just gonna be like any common thing, being married, and if you fall, it’s like you’re joining us, welcome back to the real world. 

HV: Is there music?

CL: Oh yeah! There’s a song! The song is called “La vibora de la mar”?

HV: Screaming, it has the same name? 

CL: uh, yeah. 

HV: How does it go? Sing it for us. 

CL: “A la vibora, vibora, de la mar, de la mar, por aquí pueden pasar, los de adelante corren mucho, los de atras se quedaran”. 

(To the snake, snake, of the sea, of the sea, you can pass through here, the ones in the front run a lot, the ones in the back stay behind). 

HV: What is the translation of “vibora de la mar”? 

CL: Ooooo, snake of the sea? I think it’s “vibora” because the people are holding hands and they’re going in a snake motion. I’ve mainly seen it with adults because it can get kind of aggressive so I don’t think that they want children to get trampled. I think it’s aggressive because they’re trying to knock down the bride and groom. If the men were to go first, since they tend to be a little more aggressive, then the women wouldn’t be able to go. Cause then what if the groom falls or the bride falls or someone gets hurt. 

My Interpretation: The significance of this tradition to me seems like it’s a way of testing the newlyweds’ bond. By physically trying to knock down the couple, who are now connected, literally through the bride’s veil, and figuratively through marriage, the community is giving them their first test of endurance in this new chapter of the life cycle. It’s also interesting to me how segregated the tradition is by gender because it demonstrates how separate men and women are in the culture and how their roles in marriage will also be separate and distinct. 

Trndez – Armenian Festival/Holiday

Nationality: Armenian/American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Armenian

Informant’s Background:

My informant, AD, is an undergraduate student at USC who grew up in Glendale, California. Her family immigrated to the United States from the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Context:

The informant is my girlfriend and we share an apartment together. I asked her if she could share some Armenian folklore with me, and this is one of the pieces that she provided.

Performance:

AD: “There’s like this holiday in Armenia called “Trndez” and it’s celebrated usually around Valentine’s Day, I think it’s on Valentine’s Day actually, uhm, and like… It involves people jumping over fires, and I’m not exactly sure what the origins of this are, it’s definitely like, pagan, but how it goes is that everyone jumps over the fire… Like a small fire, in a pit that you make, uhm and one by one people will like dance around the fire and then jump over it. And couples go together, a lot of people will go single. It’s still a very common practice, it’s pretty much embraced within the church… which is interesting, like it’s pretty common as a religious event.”

Informant’s Thoughts:

AD: “I think it’s really nice. I think it’s one of the coolest things we have. Like, in terms of cultural holidays, I dunno, there’s something fun about it, it’s very like spontaneous-feeling, there’s a lot of energy to that holiday in particular.”

Thoughts:

Jumping over a fire is actually a pretty common tradition present in a number of cultural holidays. For example, in Iran, it marks the start of a new year, with the fire being seen as cleansing or purifying. Interestingly, a search for articles on these types of rituals or holidays primarily returns articles like this one [here], about large numbers of burn injuries as a result of such practices. 

Johari HG, Mohammadi AA. Burns 2010; 36(4): 585-6; author reply 586.