Tag Archives: dance

Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival

AGE: 20 

Date of performance: 04/30/2025

Occupation: Student 

Primary Language: English 

Title-   Tết Trung Thu

Context- J shares a Vietnamese festival he celebrates to commemorate the fall season— “Usually we go to this big Vietnamese church where they hold fall fest and usually you just sit around and listen to a whole bunch of live music. There’s also different performances like the lion/dragon dance and you eat moon cake. It’s a time for family to hang around and spend time with each other where you play different viet games like lotto (Vietnamese bingo) and an animal gambling game where you put money on a certain animal and roll a dice and if the dice is a picture of your animal, you win money.”

Analysis- J tells about the Vietnamese mid-autumn festival filled with games and money, paired with ritual food and performances. Specifically, the lion/dragon dance takes place. These dances are typically high energy in extravagant costumes made with bright colors as a way to manifest good fortune and deter bad spirits. The theme of good fortune is common not only throughout the Vietnamese culture, but East Asia as well. J also mentions the eating of moon cake, which symbolizes completeness and unity. Tết Trung Thu is a living example of folklore as traditions, customs, rituals and cultural identity are celebrated when the festival is celebrated. There are symbolic rituals such as the lion/dragon dance, and traditional foods like the moon cake.

El Caballo Dorado Dance

Age: 20


Date of performance: 4/25/2025


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Mexican American


Occupation: Full-Time Student


Primary Language: English


Residence: California

Text: “El Caballo Dorado” AKA ‘The Golden Horse’

Context:

My informant recalled a dance they learned as a child during a party, which they associated with ‘ranchero’ culture. The dance, known as “El Caballo Dorado,” is commonly performed at indoor parties, sometimes even during public celebrations outdoors, and features traditional clothing. It derives its name from traditional Mexican song under the same name that plays during the dance Similar to the “Cha Cha Slide” in American party culture, my informant added that it’s a group dance with synchronized movements. A signature move among the male dancers includes holding one hand on their cowboy hat and the other with a thumb tucked under their belt, reinforcing its cowboy-related theme. The dance starts at a manageable pace but increases in speed, turning into a sort of informal competition where participants must keep up with the rhythm. Those who fall behind are seen as having “lost,” though there isn’t a single winner—multiple people can succeed if they maintain the pace. The informant emphasized its role as both a cultural expression and a competitive party activity.

Analysis:

I listened to this song growing up under a Hispanic household, in doing so I hold a similar interpretation to my informant. Much alike my informant, I never learned the actual history about this dance just its background. This has made me arrive at the conclusion that—though it might’ve initially had a significant historical value upon its commencement—it has ultimately evolved to the traditional point of serving as just an entertainment value for Hispanic communities. Despite this, it has held on strong due to its levels of complexities people in the community take it and have continued to pass down throughout generations. Music is a strong foundation for most Latin communities, and this song and dance has served to cement this ideology of bringing generations of diverse individuals to continue to share the dance floor and enjoy their culture.

Bucktoothed Buzzards – Ballad

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text/Context: “This is a girl scout song that we would always do at sleepaway camp, around the campfire, a bunch of sugar-high girls, the whole deal. At least in my unit, it was always reserved for the oldest troop. The eldest girls on their way out of the program are the ones teaching it to the younger girls, they have that privilege. And with girl scout songs, when you’re the one leading them you have to give 300% so that anyone else only has to give 50%. We usually do this starting at 3 or 4 but I’ll start at 2 for the sake of time.

Two buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn. 

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn.

No buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, let us reee-joice. Hallelujah!

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, lett us reee-joice. Hallelujah!”

Analysis: The girl scouts are one of the largest and most well known folk groups, and the scale is reflected in the variety of folklore they have to offer. My sister was a girl scout for a few years, so I thought I was familiar with most of their folklore, but I have never heard this song before. It has a similar structure to other silly folk songs, with the counting and all, but I think it separates itself from others like it in a few unique ways. When performing this song for me, my informant also performed a dance that she said is essential to the song. It was quite the interesting dance with lots of unusual motions, and those combined with the unique delivery and enunciation made it very interesting. I already understood that being a girl scout is an experience that sticks with people forever, but seeing this performance and hearing what my informant had to say about it really reinforced that fact. It goes to show how powerful folk groups really are, and how even something like a silly song can mean so much more.

Ants in your pants!

AGE

17

Date_of_performance

2/23/25

Language

English

Nationality

American

Occupation

Student

Primary Language

Spanish

Residence

San Jose, CA

Folk Speech: minoi minoi minoi minoi pei o se loi a siva siva ua gaoioi 

Translation: move move move move like an ant, move like you got ants in your pants

Context + Text: The individual is my roommate’s sister. The informant has a large Samoan family, where this saying stems from. She recalls hearing this saying most frequently whenever she was feeling a little down, or just afraid of dancing with her family. “The time I vividly first remember hearing this was at my brother’s 15th birthday, when the whole family was out dancing on the dance floor, and I was hiding in the corner with my other cousins. We then heard our parents and relatives yelling this saying to us, while laughing, as they were egging us on to come dance with them”. It was a very endearing moment, she said, as her and her cousins felt inclined to join the dance floor. 

Analysis: The above saying is actually stemmed from a Samoan pop group called Five Stars, dedicated to making family music. The change to turn some of the lyrics into a saying was successful in creating a cultural connection between Samoan families. For the informant herself, her family has moved over into the US, so it has become a little hard to keep the Samoan culture with such a small community. This little saying to just cheer up children and encourage them to dance is effective in keeping the culture alive. She believes that it is fun to hear this saying, and this is important as she has started listening to more Samoan music, hoping to hear more fun little sayings she wants to carry on. 
We can find a similar and funny version of this in the children’s cartoon, Phineas and Ferb, with the song “Squirrels in my Pants”. This song is performed by one of the main characters as she dances in creative and entertaining ways. 

Tinikling (Filipino Folk Dance)

Nationality: American
Age: 64
Occupation: Attorney

Text
Tinikling is a Filipino folk dance. Originating during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines, farmers would use bamboo traps to keep animals away from their crops.  However, the Philippine tikling bird was able to bypass the traps and reach the crops, which is what Tinikling is said to be named after. This dance itself mimics the movements of the tikling bird and was also created to deter birds from the land. There is also another legend associated with tinikling. When the Spaniards had colonized the Philippines, the native Filipinos were forced to work on plantations. As the story goes, those who didn’t comply with the orders from the Spanish leaders had to stand between two bamboo poles while they were clapped together and thus injured their feet. So, the Filipino people would jump to avoid this pain, and this form of punishment turned into a traditional folk dance in the Philippines. 

Context
My informant for this story is my dad (VG), who said he remembers hearing the story and seeing Tinikling performed for the first time when he was a kid.  The Filipino dance of Tinikling involves two long bamboo rods, at least six feet in length.  Two people play the role of clappers while the dancers stand between the bamboo poles.  The apparel of the dancers is often traditional Filipino clothing, for example, a Barong Tagalog for men.  The dancers will step and jump while the clappers continuously clap the bamboo poles together according to the rhythm.  My dad’s mom told him something about birds dancing or flying from branch to branch, and someone else had told him that birds were hopping to avoid bird traps.

Interpretation
I’m curious about the possible origins.  While both could be just as likely, it makes me wonder if they were both true but different sides of the same story, one more appropriate for younger audiences.  Or perhaps one or neither is perfectly accurate, and stories and embellishments were developed to accompany the dance.  Either way, Tinikling is an extremely impressive folk dance that requires lots of skill while also bringing Filipino communities together.