Title: Sheba Sign

General Information about Item:

• Customary Folklore: Ritual, Tradition

• English

• USA

Informant Data:

• Dami Apoeso is 21 years old and was born in Hartford Connecticut. He grew up in the Bronx, New York City and currently lives in Spring Valley, New York. He is majoring in computer science. He danced for approximately 6 years in a summer camp before joining Sheba his sophomore year at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context

All members of the team use the hand sign. The sign originated a long time ago and the informant is not sure when. The sign is used during practices, before, during and after performances, and any time members wish to use it.

• Cultural Context

Sheba is a very close knit group and this sign is a special tradition that represents the entire group. The group takes pride in its sign and this is reflective of the group’s culture – the team takes pride in its accomplishments and is like a family.

Item:

The Sheba hand sign consists of two hands placed in the shape of an S. The hand sign is used throughout many dances and it is a tradition for performances to end with the sign. The sign is also used during photos and any other time the group would like to represent itself. A video containing the hand sign can be seen below.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Sheba Sign

Transcript of Associated File:

“We also do the Sheba sign we like to incorporate it into many of the dances and we normally end with that as well and then we do it when we take photos of course. A lot of the times we do this thing where we complete someone else’s hands so ill like go like this and someone else’s hand will finish the s. So yeah thats like a symbol of our connection I guess.”

Informant’s Comments:

The informant believes the sign is a symbol that represents the group and takes pride in the symbol.

Collector’s Comments:

It is very interesting because many dance groups and other groups have symbols, but from the informant’s description it seems as though members of Sheba take a large amount of pride in their symbol as opposed to many of the other groups for whom the symbols are not as important.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

• Dance
• Team
• Symbol
• Ritual
• Tradition