Category Archives: Kinesthetic

Body movements

Freeze Tag

Nationality: Latino-American
Age: 7
Occupation: Student
Residence: South Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 16, 2012
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Additional informant data: My informant is a 2nd-grader in South Los Angeles. He has lived in LA his entire life. He is Latino and speaks both Spanish and English. My informant attends a public, coeducational elementary school, which has students from kindergarten through fifth grade. Several times during the day, the children at his school have a recess period, when they’re given access to balls, jump ropes, etc., and are allowed to play outside.

Contextual data: My informant and I sat down outside his classroom after two months of my teaching his class the fundamentals of folklore through USC’s Joint Educational Program. After I began asking him about games he knows and plays often, he came up with freeze tag–a popular children’s game–and began explaining it to me. The following is an exact record of our conversation:

Jackson (me): Can you tell me about freeze tag?

I (my informant): Freeze tag is a game where you have to tag a person and they . . .  they stay there for . . . uhh . . . as long as they . . . uhh . . . forever, or if somebody stays, or if somebody tags them, somebody else, they . . . they . . . they’re unfroze, umm . . . if they’re all froze at the same time, the person who . . . the person who tagged them wins freeze tag and . . . if they don’t get all tagged . . . if they don’t get all tagged, then the person loses and the other people win, and that’s it.

J: And it ends when recess ends? Do you just keep playing until the bell?

I: Yeah.

J: Who do you usually play it with?

I: My bro— uhh . . . my friends, and my sister, and my brother, and my other sister, and my other brother.

J: Ok. How many people play, usually?

I: Five or six.

J: Ok. Do you remember who taught it to you, or did you kind of just learn it from people at school?

I: Umm . . . my . . . my . . . the one who taught it to me was my grandpa.

J: All right. Do you have anything else you want to say about freeze tag?

I: Nope.

I suppose few students in the United States–and probably in many other parts of the world–haven’t played tag at some point in their lives, and freeze tag is one of the most common versions. Whoever is “it” has the goal of “tagging” all the other players by chasing them down and touching them. When someone is tagged, they must freeze in place, and they can’t move until another player touches them.

While my informant didn’t have any ideas about the underlying significance of freeze tag, I have a few. The notion of one person being “it” and tagging others–rendering them physically immobile–seems to me like a sick person infecting others. If this is the case, it makes sense that someone else must “un-tag” them; that’s like being healed by somebody else. I discussed this with my roommate and he told me at his school they used to play this same exact game, but there they called it “germ tag,” and whoever was “it” had the germ. This reinforced my idea of freeze tag being modeled after some kind of fear of viruses or infection, as everyone is trying to run away from someone who has suddenly become dangerous, in a sense. In addition, this person is (or was) one of their close friends, which makes the chasing and tagging process a lot more disturbing. The person who is “it” is singled out and has the task of subduing all their friends, and the intentional quality of their behavior might reflect on the pervasive feelings against people who infect others with diseases.

Beyond this, freeze tag (or any kind of tag) could just be another schoolyard attempt at labeling “the Other,” or maybe it’s just a simple, fun game. It’s extremely common, but rather than discard it as commonplace because of it, I think we ought to pay special attention to the game precisely because it’s so widespread.

Annotation: Seen in the title and plot of Caroline B. Cooney’s 2004 novel Freeze Tag. Here is the Amazon.com synopsis of the book:

From best-selling author Caroline Cooney comes this suspenseful story of Meghan, whose relationship with her perfect boyfriend is destroyed by a girl who can freeze people with a touch of her finger.

When Meghan and West first played Freeze Tag with Lannie, it was no ordinary game. Because when Lannie tagged someone, they really froze. Icy blue and cold. Like death.

Now Meghan, West, and Lannie are in high school, and Meghan and West are in love. They’re the perfect couple. But Lannie is determined to have West for her very own… and if she doesn’t get her way, she’ll freeze Meghan… to death.

http://www.amazon.com/Freeze-Tag-Point-Caroline-Cooney/dp/0590456814

“I Went to a Chinese Restaurant”

Nationality: Chinese/Japanese/Pakistani
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 24, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Contextual data: When asked about childhood games or rhymes she knew, my informant immediately thought of this game. My informant was born and grew up in Hawaii. She says she first learned this in first grade at school through a friend. She says at the time everyone used to play it. The lines are said simultaneously by two partners, to a simple tune, clapping hands in different patterns every other syllable. At the end of the game, both players freeze, and whoever moves first loses. This can be decided by the spectators surrounding the players, or by one of the players themselves. The following is a transcription of the song’s lyrics (line breaks my addition):

I went to a Chinese restaurant / to buy a loaf of bread. / The lady asked my name, / and this is what I said: / my name is L-i-l-i pickle-eye pickle-eye pom-pom beauty x-y cutie Indiana Jones don’t move!

My informant and I both had difficulty thinking about the significance behind the song or game–in her own words, the game “sounds nice” and “it doesn’t matter when you’re in first grade”–but I’m sure there is some. Perhaps “pickle-eye pickle-eye” is some kind of racial slur against Asian facial features (perhaps the owner of the Chinese restaurant?), and “pom-pom beauty x-y cutie” could reference any number of things, from cheerleading to large breasts. The lyrics are so abstract and seemingly disparate that it’s hard to string them together. Perhaps by this point they’ve changed so much from their earliest forms that it’s actually impossible to pinpoint any original, intended meaning (if there ever was one), and now people find significance in the simple pleasures of playing the game.

Winter Guard

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Student Housing
Performance Date: April 21st
Primary Language: English

Contextual Information

Time of Interview: April 21st, 5:01 p.m.

Location of Interview: Interior of Informant’s Room, Arts and Humanities

Informant’s First Encounter w/ Folklore: Freshman Year of Private High School

When Folklore is Performed: Before every Winter Guard performance.

 

Transcript:

“In Winter Guard, we did this thing where we all stood in a circle before every performance and mentally transferred all our ‘bad’ or ‘negative’ energy and nerves into an ‘energy ball’ and pantomimed throwing the ball away from the performance area. We transferred the energy by shaking and dusting it off of us, sometimes even coughing and pretending to spit. If we were outside, my coach would actually spit on the ground.”

 

Numerous things can go wrong during a sporting match, so any form of mental concentration or preparedness is welcome before a match. By banding together, the Winter Guard team places emphasis upon the unity and coordination required in their performances, and allows everyone to enter a “team” mindset.

Tamasha (Maharashtra Folk Dance)

Nationality: Indian
Age: 60
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Dubai
Performance Date: 4/7/12
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English, Marathi

“In Maharashtra, there are two types of Tamasha, first is Dholaki Fadcha Tamasha and the other is Sangeet Baaricha Tamasha. Search on Youtube and you could see examples of how it is performed. Dholaki Fadcha tamasha is a complete art, which includes song, dance, and theater. Now in Maharashtra there are only 18 to 20 full time Tamasha parties. Each Tamasha Manadal performs approximately 210 days in all over Maharashtra and also some border villages of Karnataka and Gujarat. It is original Marathi folk art, but the name Tamasha has some ancient origin from Persian language which means “Fun and Play.”

The informant is the mother of one of my friends, who came to visit her son from her hometown of Dubai, India. She seemed very interested in talking about the lore of her culture, and told me about this type of folk dance the Maharashtra people perform, called Tamasha. She was able to perform it in front of me; however, she did not want me to record it on video. It appears to be a type of free-style dance, in which involves the hips, hands, and feet. She indicated that there are numerous versions of the dance online and was able to provide a description and background about the dance. She found this piece to be interesting to talk about, because it is a traditional form of folk art as part of the Marathi culture, where she is originally from.

It is often performed for entertainment, coupled with singing, and widely performed by local groups within Maharashtra, India. It can also be found in Marathi films. She learned it in grade school from hearing stories and observing stage performances. Later, she saw it in Marathi movies where it played a significant role in forming the plot. It was further integrated in Hindi movies. The informant always found Tamasha to be very interesting to her, because it is influenced by many Indian art forms and draws from diverse traditions of India, such as Kavali culture (location in East India), ghazals (poems), Kathak dance, Dashvatara (10 principle Avatars, an Indian philosophy), Lalit (Indian classical music) and Kirtan (a form of Indian chant).

After looking at both forms of Marathi dance on the internet, the style of dance clearly exhibits the Tamasha art form, which is expected to be some kind of spectacle, show, and commotion that exudes excitement. Because this type of dance seems to be unique to the Marathi culture, it is probably used as a form of identification. According to the informant, everyone in Maharashtra knows about Tamasha and Marathi dance. Therefore, it can serve not only as a source of entertainment but can be indicative of the Marathi people.

Will Hack’s Broom

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: april 20, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Tamil

The informant is describing a piece of folklore from within the quidditch community. Quidditch is an increasingly popular sport among college students. It was originally based on the fictional sport from the harry potter novels adapted to exist without magic. The sport has now taken on a life of its own, having an official governing body in the International Quidditch Association. There is even an annual Wold Cup for the sport. This particular piece is about one of the people who runs the organization.

The Story:

So, I heard about Will Hack’s broom at the World Cup V in New York. And it was during the MSU UCLA game and, where we saw Will Hack illegally, uh, doing a lot of things illegally. And… he made a girl cry! And tackled her illegally, and was being a douchebag. The whole west had a chant going that said “Will Hack’s Broom.” And this is not a new thing. Apparently, the whole United States Quidditch League knows about it. So, and then after UCLA lost to Middlebury, a bunch of USC kids, we just what? reenacted his thing across the pitch. It was fun. Basically, instead of holding his broom upright between his legs like normally you’re supposed to do… upright? sideways? I don’t know. Normally! He has the broom dragging on the floor. Where he, it almost, he almost has it coming out of his legs. So it’s almost illegal. So I feel like it’s an ineffective way of playing quidditch. Especially since he’s one of the people who wrote the rulebook.

Will Hack

This has spawned many pieces of folklore that go with it. There is the gesture of dragging a broom which instantly identifies someone as a member of the quidditch community. There is also the chant which unifies someone as a member of the western region.