- Text
Little Sally Walker is an interactive song/game that involves a group of people. Everyone arranges into a circle with at least one person in the center. The person (or people, depending how large your group is) in the center starts walking/skipping around the circle while everyone sings: “Little Sally Walker, walking down the street. She didn’t know what to do so she stopped in front of me, she said, hey girl, do your thing, do your thing, do your thing. Hey girl, do your thing, do your thing, do your thing, now switch!” When the song reaches “stopped in front of me,” the person in the middle will stop in front of any member of the circle and face them. This center person will then do a dance move, and the person on the edge will mirror this move, all while the group continues to sing, “hey girl, do your thing, do your thing, do your thing. Hey girl, do your thing, do your thing, do your thing, now switch!” The person from the circle now switches positions with the person in the middle, and becomes the new “Little Sally Walker” and the cycle continues. - Context
This song/activity was a tradition at my childhood summer camp that I encountered in my first summer there in 2008, and repeated every year until my most recent summer (now working as a counselor) in 2022. Little Sally Walker always occurred on the first day of camp, once all the campers had arrived and it was the first official “icebreaker” of the 2-week overnight session. - Interpretation
While I’m sure this jingle has deeper historical origins than I’m aware of, it seems to express values around interaction and engagement with others. As it requires nothing more than a group of people, it is able to be done anywhere. In the context of my camp, it was also a successful way of passing time or distracting campers until an event or activity starts.
Tag Archives: dance
Bring The Bride!
Original: “جلب العروس“
Transliteration: Jalab El Aroos
Translation: “Bring the bride”
The informant is one of my family members who is married and has been raised in Lebanon for most of her life. She discusses instances in her childhood and moments with her family that are the most significant to her culture and upbringing
Context:
She states that “Lebanese heritage lies mostly within special occasions such as weddings, which is one of the most important moments of every Lebanese individual’s life as it brings most of the family together to practice passionate traditions that can only be done on these rare occasions” conveying the importance of culture within Lebanese Culture. She states that “This certain grand gesture is mostly practised by the Druze religion and is the process of claiming the bride from her family home” The Druze religion is the smallest religious group in Lebanon that have a certain manner in performing wedding ceremonies specifically. The process involves “driving from the groom to the brides home with a traditional Lebanese ‘Zaffe’ which includes a band and dancers dressed in traditional Druze wear” which the informant states have been done at her wedding in a vast manner. She ends with “The groom and family must dance and sing until they reach the bride to claim her from her parents and take her back to his home” The informant has specifically stated that this process is accurate at all Druze weddings and is a part of the ritual of their marriage.
Analysis:
The formal use of the title of the gesture highlights how sacred this element of the wedding is to the culture and religion. Although the Druze community is not the largest religious group in Lebanon, it is still indicated to be the country with the highest Druze population, therefore, having such a theatrical part of the ceremony allows them to celebrate their culture in a day with the entirety of the community. The dance is the main element of the gesture highlighting the culture that is taught into daily life in the ceremony so that every individual has the chance to celebrate and bring their culture to light at this heightened moment of celebration together. Incorporating the traditional outfits of the religion allows the community to be seen by the rest of the country as they are the smallest religious group. Although the ceremony may not have religious scripture or performance elements incorporated such as Christianity or Islam, this is how the Druze community incorporates their culture into formal celebrations and rituals. It also portrays the unity between the families as it is not an aggressive ‘claim’ but instead an agreement to allow the couple to continue to thrive in a joint manner in the Druze community.
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.
Snow Dance
Context: Has been vacationing in Utah for the past 10 to 11 years. He goes during the winter mainly to ski with family and friends.
Text:
“And we go during the winter and during the summer. But especially during the winter, we do this thing called a powder dance or a snow dance. Just like right before we go to bed, me and my family do some crazy dance that doesn’t make any sense at all. But it’s not just the dance itself. It’s just the fact you are dancing, dancing for the “snow gods’ ‘. And I say it’s worked like 50 percent of the time, but it’s just a fun tradition I have with my family. And when it does work it’s epic, and we go ‘yooooo we did that’”.
Analysis:
This piece of folk dance here has three broader connections to the greater discussion around the discipline of folklore. Firstly, it is an example of folk dance, exemplifying the genre as variation is common with no two dances being the same. Additionally, it is another example of familial folklore, something that could be then spread down from generation to generation. Finally, it is also indicative of folklore generated as an attempt at explaining the unexplained. To pretend like we actually have any power of the all powerful forces such as weather is done through the means of folklore quite often.