Father-Daughter Dance

Title: Father-Daughter Dance

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

JM19 is a 22 year old woman from Boston, MA. She attends Dartmouth College and is a member of the Class of 2019. She intends to move to New York City after graduation and pursue a career in consulting. She is the oldest of three children in her family.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: JM19 has attended several weddings where this tradition has been practiced. It is often seen at American weddings, but may be a tradition in different cultures as well.
Social Context: This tradition is practiced at many American weddings. Often, most everyone in attendance at the wedding watches the bride and her father dance. After the dance, the groom cuts in or the bride is passed off to him. It is a moment of bonding that the bride gets to share with her father before spending the rest of her life with her new husband.

Item (Direct Quote):

“The few family weddings that I have been to have always included a slow father-daughter dance. I remember this being an intimate and tear jerking moment of the after-party where the father of the bride dances alone with his daughter on the dance floor. It is a symbolic moment in the wedding, where the father has a quiet moment with his daughter before she spends the rest of the evening with her husband.”

Collector’s Name: Natalie Knight

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive