The Dab Line

Title: The Dab Line

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Bailee Brekke was born in Naperville, IL, on May 16, 1998. She grew up in Ithaca, New York and currently lives in Oxford Ohio. Her dad is the men’s head coach for the Miami of Ohio hockey team and her mom is a communication’s specialist. She is a sophomore at Dartmouth College, with a major in economics and she has one brother.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context:The idea of the dab is considered a dance move or a statement. It became most popular around 2015 and has continued to be performed since. It is used by people of all ages but mostly in children, teens, and young adults. People use the dab as a joke, dance move, and as a sign of confidence/triumph.
Social Context:The women’s ice hockey assistant coach loves to joke with the team and players. During the 2016-2017 season, he learned what the “dab” was and became obsessed with it. He used in all the time, even in the wrong context. The team found this hilarious, and uncomfortable, but overall loved it. He then texted people over Christmas break, using a bitmoji that was dabbing in front of a Christmas tree, to the team and everyone adored it.

Item:

Before the team goes on the ice for every period or warm up, everyone lines up in a specific order to go out of the locker room, down the stairs, and to the ice. Every game, the team walks out of the locker room in the same order. Once everyone is down the staircase, there is a new order that everyone stands in before going on the ice. For example, one player could be at the end of the locker room line, but once they are down the stairs they could walk past half of the team to stand in their place in the hallway. Bailee stands in the end of the line in the locker room and as she passes people in the hallway she gives them fist bumps. When she gets to Kate Landers, they fist bump each other and dab. After that, Bailee stands behind Kate before going on to the ice.

Transcript:

“My favorite thing I do before games is the dab. I think it describes me pretty well as having a funny personality while still being focused before the game. Sometimes I like to make different noises with people as I do it which is funny… everyone seems to enjoy and looks forward to it.”

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments:

I always thought this was such a fun idea and unique to the rest of the team’s individual handshakes. It’s interesting how everyone has a handshake or chant with one other person, but Bailee’s is performed with half the team.

Collector’s Name: Kate Landers

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive