Title: Tying Skates in Specific Order
Genre: Customary, Ritual, Magic
Language: English
County of Origin: USA
Informant Data: Regina Yan ’19 is currently enrolled at Dartmouth College. She was born in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and moved to Overland Park, Kansas when she was seven. In addition to being on the Dartmouth Figure Skating Team, Regina is also an active member of the Dartmouth Outing Club and a leader in the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club.Regina started to skate when she was 10 years old after watching the 2006 Torino Olympics. She skated for five years with the Silver Blades Skating Club but due to health problems, stopped skating in high school. She began again her freshman year at Dartmouth College.
Social/Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. The informant was asked to talk about figure skating folklore in relation to the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club.
Regina encountered this piece of folklore and began to engage in the practice during her time at the Silver Blades Skating Club. She had seen other skaters engage in this piece of folklore but only started to participate after a particularly memorable performance. This is a common piece of folklore across all skating communities and she continues to engage in it here at Dartmouth. , causing new skaters to pick it up as well.
Item:
Often times, skaters will always tie one skate before the other (right before left or left before right). Which skate the skater ties first stems back to exceedingly excellent performance he/she had in the past.
Transcription of Interview
“I always have to tie the left skate first. I never tie the top hook…. I skated well once when I tied my left boot first so I’m going to tie that boot first every single time. I won my first competition tying my left boot first so you always like to attribute good things.
”
Collector’s Comments:
This is a form of homeopathic magic. Skaters are attempted to channel a previous performance by recreating the conditions that they believe led to that performance.
Collectors: Samuel Lee
Tags/Keywords:
- Skating, Dartmouth Figure Skating Club, DFSC, Ritual