Category Archives: Kinesthetic

Body movements

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.

Manogue High School “Spirit Clap”

Age: 19
Residence: Reno, Nevada
Performance Date: 4/19/2011
Primary Language: English

clap hands, slap hands on thighs, and alternate until you get the entire group doing it

Willie learned this clapping ritual in one of his various leadership organizations. For him, it symbolizes all the fun times he has had in his high school, particularly with these groups.

The “spirit clap” is a relatively simple maneuver, intended to get the attention of a noisy crowd. It is a series of movements that one person picks up, and then another, until the entire group is doing it, and everyone is united in their attention. This is an effective leadership tool, because it gets peoples’ attention and then makes them participate.

“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.

Sephardic Jewish Seder

Nationality: Persian
Age: 18
Occupation: Human Performance Major at University of Southern California
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 19th, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Persian, Spanish

“So back in the day, the Jews were slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh’s authority. Pharaoh made them build pyramids and would whip the Jews with whips. During Seder, we attack/smack each other with onions to remind us of the horrors the Jews had to face. My family is crazy though and buys leeks instead of onions and we freeze them so it hurts more when we beat each other hahaha. I’ve been doing it my whole life, ever since I remember. I like it because its fun but I hate it when it hurts hahaha (my cousins really hit me hard). I don’t feel an emotional attachment hahaha but it makes the holiday a little more real which is really the main purpose”

This is one of my favorite folk items because it shows the diversity that can occur within a major folk group, in this case the Jewish people. Within the Jewish community there considered to be two major groups of Jews, Sephardic and Ashkenazi. Ashkenazi describes those who have ancestors in Eastern Europe, and Sephardic describes those who have ancestors from Iran, Iraq, and all middle east countries, and since the actual word means “Spanish” I will assume that it describes those who were kicked out during the Spanish Inquisition time. When it comes to Passover, the differences between both groups are very visible. Each has their own Passover Seder traditions, this being one of the Sephardic ones. From my own knowledge I have heard that Sephardic Jews take celery and slightly beat each other on the back while chanting one of the Passover songs named “Dayenu”. From my conversation with Natalie it seems that her family is very passionate about this very tradition. Perhaps some of her older family members wanted to bring more meaning to the horrors that the Jewish slaves had to face, or perhaps they are all much more amused by the extremeness of their act. From my perspective it seems the Sephardic sect, during Passover, is much more intent on reenacting and experiencing the same experiences felt by Jews during those years in Slavery. I say this because I know another Sephardic tradition that does not exist in Ashkenazi Passover is to reenact the story of Moses taking the slaves out of Egypt from the burning bush to the crossing of the desert. However, although both groups are very separate, and perhaps for some there is sometimes a slight animosity between the two groups in Israel, I find that outside Israel the two groups have been combined when it comes to Passover and each family decides its own traditions according to its own family members which may involve both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish people.

Dartmouth College Festival

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 20
Occupation: Government Major at Dartmouth College
Residence: Irvine, CA
Performance Date: March 18th, 2011
Primary Language: Hebrew
Language: English, Italian, Hebrew

“Winter carnival: the ‘big’ weekend of winter term at Dartmouth. It is a weekend that centers on ski races and tradition. The Dartmouth alpine and Nordic ski teams host the carnival and compete against the other teams from the EISA (eastern intercollegiate ski association). They then celebrate their accomplishments at ski-team-only parties and special events. Non-skiers celebrate the weekend as well, in several ways: students build the traditional snow sculpture at the center of the Green; partake in the Polar Bear Swim (which entails taking a plunge into the frozen Occom Pond). Other events include the human dog sled race and the Carni Classic (a Nordic ski race which requires that participants dress in ‘flair’–ridiculous, colorful, tacky clothing).This year is the 100 year anniversary of this carnival. I love this weekend because of its many traditions and because it’s centered on celebrating a season that it usually tough to bear in Hanover, NH.”

I’ve spoken to my sister about this festival many times over the years since she first enrolled in Dartmouth College, and every time I notice the pride in her voice. She loves Dartmouth College and with it all of the traditions that come with being a student there. For obvious reasons, this festival could not occur in a southern California university such as USC. However it does make me think of the difference between the “tradition issues” of those two colleges and why it is much more celebrated in Dartmouth. In my opinion there are two main reasons, one of them being the amount of time each college has exited. Dartmouth was established in 1769, while USC only dates back to 1880.The other reason can be related to the difference between the East and the West coasts, the first one being a more “traditional” one by nature, especially the old ‘New England’ part, where Dartmouth is located. What attracts me about the weekend is how the non-skiers celebrate; I’ve seen pictures of snow sculpture and each year it gets more and more magnificent! At USC we have our football traditions, however, even though every football game is a massive celebration, there is no one specific weekend with activities oriented around celebrating the sport. I think that USC emphasizes football almost to an extreme, but we don’t celebrate the sport itself we solely celebrate our team’s talent. Perhaps these two traditions are not even comparable, as Dartmouth “Winter Carnival” is much above being about sport; it is rather about winter spirit in one of the coldest areas of the USA.

Dartmouth Winter Carnival is mentioned in a fairly known book about F Scot Fitzgerlad. Fitzgerald, F. Scott, Jackson R. Bryer, Alan Margolies, and Ruth Prigozy. F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Perspectives. Athens, GA: University of Georgia, 2000. 4-10. Print.