Dancer’s Folk Usage of a Tennis Ball

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: College Student
Residence: California, USA
Performance Date: 04/18/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: n/a

Context:

Informant AT was a current undergraduate student at The University of Southern California pursuing their BFA in Dance at the time of this collection. As an aspiring dancer and college student, AT takes dance classes almost daily and rehearses regularly. With all of the physical demands that dance requires, AT often finds themself with aching and sore muscles. To combat this, AT has adopted a popular folk use of a commercial object that they learned from other dancers.

Text:

Stepping on the tennis by and moving your foot around.

Slowly and slightly moving your body while laying or sitting on the tennis ball.

Firmly pushing/pressing the tennis ball against your body while grasping it with your hand.

Analysis:

According to AT, this folk usage of a tennis ball allows him to “roll out” his sore muscles which helps them feel less achy. In hearing AT describe this, I started to realize how this folk usage can reflect and distinguish the identity of dancers. Tennis balls are not designed and sold to alleviate muscle soreness. The action of using tennis balls in this folk way, allows dancers to distinguish themselves as such. While dancers frequently experience muscle soreness and fatigue, they don’t always have the time or the funds to get the attention/care from massage therapists. The tennis ball has come to meet the needs of dancers while being an affordable alternative that dancers can use on other own time. Since dancers have busy schedules that require them to move from studio to studio or studio to the stage, it is important that dancers be able to fit all of their belongings in a portable bag. The small size of the tennis ball is convenient for dancers since it can easily fit in just about any bag.

Bloody Bones – Family Folk Game

Nationality: American
Age: 73
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Fosters, AL, USA
Performance Date: 04/20/2021
Primary Language: English

Context:

On a phone call with informant RM, they remembered a game they used to play with their children and grandchildren when they were young. As they recalled the many times they played this game, RM smiled and laughed at the fond memories it elicited.

Text:

Game Name: Bloody Bones

The game is played inside a house at night when young children or grandchildren should be asleep. When RM would hear children still making noise (talking or watching TV), they would “become” Bloody Bones. Usually, this meant that RM put in fake teeth or took off their shirt. They would quietly walk just a few feet from the children’s bedroom door and begin to repeatedly say, “bloody bones gonna getcha” in a haunting voice. Bloody Bones would then creep closer and closer to the door to see if the children were continuing to make any noise. The only way to “beat” Bloody Bones was to go to sleep and be completely quiet. If Bloody Bones made it to the children’s door they would bust through the door into the children’s bedroom and scare them.

As the children grew older, they became more rebellious and would play this game by trying to outsmart Bloody Bones. RM recalled one time where their children would make “traps” for Bloody Bones by placing objects and small toys such as jacks on the ground so that they could hear when Bloody Bones was approaching. RM also recalled one time when they came into the bedroom to scare the children, but they were all hiding under the bed and in closets. Both Bloody Bones and the children laughed when there was no one around for Bloody Bones to scare.

No matter who wins, the game ends when both the children and Bloody Bones go to bed.

Analysis:

While this family game primarily functions to scare children into going to sleep, I believe that it also gives insights into the relationship between its players and the personal values of the informant. Most parents or grandparents would simply disciple their children/grandchildren when they disobey their bedtime rules. Informant RM, however, crafted a game that functioned to correct/adjust their children/grandchildren’s behavior. I am inclined to think that this game reflects a personal belief that obedience can be attained in a creative or fun way. This game has a dual function of correcting behavior while simultaneously creating opportunities for fun. I believe that Informant RM cherishes their relationship with the players of this game and does not want to always be seen as the “bad guy” who enforces rules and disciplines their children. Through “Blood Bones,” RM has created a new identity for themself who can be a figurative “bad guy” that accomplishes the same goals as disciplinary action would.

The Char Man

Nationality: USA
Age: 24
Occupation: Accountant
Performance Date: 5/1/2021
Primary Language: English

“The Char Man is kind of an Ojai legend….he’s like this monster, this burned guy. He lives out by the campgrounds on Creek Road and if you get too close to the side of the road on the wrong night he gets you. I think he takes your skin or something? We talked about the Char Man a lot in middle school. People used to go out to the woods at night, like boys who thought they were gonna fight him. I don’t think he’s real, but its definitely kind of creepy.”

This legend was collected in Ojai, California. The region is rife with wildfires and forest fires, and is likely an expression of collective grief and fear of these natural disasters.

Saint Joseph and Selling a House

Nationality: USA
Age: 57
Occupation: Teacher
Performance Date: 5/1/2021
Primary Language: English

Informant: “If you want to sell your house, you dig a hole and you put a statue of Saint Joseph in the ground in your yard and then when you sell your house you dig it up. Its a real estate thing. You bury it upside down, it’s supposed to make it happen faster. Joseph was a carpenter and I think its related to the holy family fleeing to Egypt. Everybody I know does it, its just what you do when you sell your house.“

The tradition of burying a statue is a kind of Catholic folk magic practiced to bring about the desired outcome (selling of house). Saint Joseph is the figurehead associated with this, a way to request divine intervention in a real world situation.

The Rougarou

Nationality: USA
Age: 57
Occupation: Teacher
Performance Date: 5/1/2021

Informant: “Ok, I don’t know a lot, except that when I was a child, I had these, you know, grandparents that were both from Cajun country. These big Cajun families. One of them had seven siblings and one of them had nine. And so I had all these aunts and uncles who were Cajun aunts and uncles, and the two most mischievous of them were Clarence and Lawrence who were twins. They were about five-foot-eight and they were twins, and were always causing trouble, and they used to tell us all the time, all the kids, the next generation, the grandkids, that we better be careful and not go out late at night and behave ourselves or the Rougarou would get us. 

And the Rougarou was like a big, like wolf kind of thing, and he lived in the swamps. He got the children when they were bad or when they were out when they weren’t supposed to be, or doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. It was a generally known thing in Cajun country, the Rougarou.

I was terrified as a child. It kept me in line a little but, until I was old enough to know that they were just old nutty Clarence and Lawrence, but it was pretty scary, like there was this big hairy creature in the swamp. And there were swamps everywhere, I mean, thats like saying in the backyard theres a monster.”

The legend of the Rougarou is a common one in Cajun country, and is used primarily to scare children into obedience.