Author Archives: Marcus Reid

Auditions

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Title: Auditions

General Information about Item:

  • Customary folklore: rituals, traditions
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: USA

Informant Data:

  • Trevor Davis is an ’18 that joined X.ado his freshman year and sang in his high school choir for three years. He is 21 years old. He was born in Wheaton, Illinois. He grew up and still lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is majoring in computer science, and minoring in math and anthropology.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context

All returning members of X.ado are present for auditions as well as members of other acapella groups and all potential members who are trying out. Auditions take place during the fall term. X.ado used to conduct auditions separately from other acapella groups but for the past few years X.ado has worked with other acapella groups to create joint auditions.

  • Cultural Context

All groups that require some sort of skill hold auditions so they can evaluate the candidate for their ability and to see if the candidate will be a culture fit for the group. X.ado does this to ensure that the person can sing, as X.ado is an acapella group, and also wants to see if the person is a cultural fit for the group, and so the person can see if they are a cultural fit for the group. An important part of acapella is being comfortable singing in front of large groups of people. This need for confidence is seen in the fact that potential members must audition in front of members of various acapella groups.

Item:

X.ado’s auditions have changed over time. They used to host their own auditions, but now, their auditions are part of the larger Dartmouth auditions circuit.

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

https://youtu.be/B7aQJ6L_Tg0

Transcript of Associated File:

“So I’ve been in the group for three years now and thing I’ve really like seen every year is how we do auditions. Um that processed has changed for us over time, we used to do our own but now we are part of the larger acapella auditions at Dartmouth. And it’s just kind of a whole day thing, we get excited, we dress up in flair, we get them to sing different songs, they match scales and pitches, um, and it’s a really great opportunity not just for us to get to hear how they sound, but for them to get to know us and decide, you know, that acapella is something they want to do, and if our group is something they want to be a part of.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • See transcript

Collector’s Comments:

  • All groups tend to have some evaluation process to induct new members. Companies conduct interviews to see if candidates are a cultural fit, and if they’re confident. Fraternities and sororities have rush to see if they want to take a certain person into their group, etc. This seems like a pretty standard tradition that most groups engage in, in some form or another. Performance groups in general engage in a slightly more formal audition process.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Afnan Enayet/Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

  • Initiation
  • Auditions
  • Singing
  • Acapella
  • Ritual
  • Tradition

Slack Communication

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Title: Slack Communication

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre: Customary Folklore: rituals, traditions
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: United States

Informant Data:

  • Trevor Davis is an ’18 that joined X.ado his freshman year and sang in his high school choir for three years. He is 21 years old. He was born in Wheaton, Illinois. He grew up and still lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is majoring in computer science, and minoring in math and anthropology.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context:

All members of X.ado participate in this tradition and use Slack to communicate with each other. This tradition has existed for at least 3 years according to the informant.

  • Cultural Context:

X.ado tries to create a very inclusive culture and members think of the group as a second family. The members are constantly communicating and as a result, they use a special application that is devoted entirely to communication amongst the group members. The fact that members use a separate application just to communicate with each other as opposed to using GroupMe or other applications that students use to communicate with most other students reflects the extremely strong relationships that have formed on X.ado and the importance group members give each other.

Item:

The group X.ado maintains a Slack team with different channels (such as 17F, random, and rehearsals) to communicate with each other rather than use GroupMe. On Slack the group has many different channels as members discuss many different topics with each other. GroupMe is the application that most college students use in order to communicate and socialize with each other.

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

https://youtu.be/nX9XfnT0MJQ

Transcript of Associated File:

One thing about being in a group like ours on campus that’s involved not just with something we do during a lot of hours in our week but also with something that’s such an important part of our identities is that we spend a lot of time with those people. One cool thing we do is we communicate through Slack instead of GroupMe or something because we have so many different things going on. We have like a 17F channel, we have like a rehearsal channel, a social channel, a random channel, a song of the day channel, and we have all these different things going on all the time and it really just demonstrates how X.ado’s involved in so many different aspects of our lives.

Informant’s Comments:

  • See transcript

Collector’s Comments:

  • Slack is an interesting choice for communication because GroupMe is such an ubiquitous form of communication for various collegiate student across the United States. For example: many social groups, fraternities and sororities, and sports teams maintain GroupMe groups. Slack is typically used for businesses (more specifically, it’s popular amongst tech startups), which suggests that X.ado has a different dynamic compared to other student groups on campus, perhaps a more serious tone.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Afnan Enayet/Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

  • acapella
  • team
  • communication
  • tradition

X-hour

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Title: X-hour

General Information about Item:

  • Customary folklore: rituals, traditions
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: USA

Informant Data:

  • Trevor Davis is an ’18 that joined X.ado his freshman year and sang in his high school choir for three years. He is 21 years old. He was born in Wheaton, Illinois. He grew up and still lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is majoring in computer science, and minoring in math and anthropology.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context

All members of X.ado participate in this ritual. It occurs once a week. This ritual began when the group was created 25 years ago. The informant first experienced it during his first week as a member of X.ado.

  • Cultural Context

X-hour is a joke about the Dartmouth class schedule. Every class has extra optional class periods that professors use as much or as little as they wish. These periods are often called X hours. This ritual of meeting once a week just to share beliefs, reconnect and talk also reflects the inclusive and close group culture X.ado has.

Item: Once a week, X.ado meets for an hour to have an event called “X-hour”. At this event, members sometimes participate in prayers together, have a bible study, support other members by sharing affirmations about each other, make spontaneous music together and more. The hour is a chance for group members to relax, have a good time and reconnect.

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

https://youtu.be/Ok09mJ4PeNQ

Transcript of Associated File:

X-hour is something we do once a week, for an hour. It starts with an X, it’s kind of a joke about the class schedule. It’s something we’ve been doing for the full 25 years of our existence where we just meet together as a group and have a bible study. Like last week we did affirmations, where we go around the group and everybody says something like really affirmative about the person that they like or something meaningful about that person. It helps us grow together as a group. Sometimes during X-hour one of the things that we’ll do is worship. We’ll have someone bring it like a guitar or something and just do some music to celebrate our faith and people try to like harmonize and stuff, but if you are not prepared for that, where you don’t have sheet music like for acapella then you sound like really really bad. I remember sometimes just like these atrocious noises coming out of x-hour, but people have a good time and it just makes it really entertaining.

Informant’s Comments:

  • See transcript

Collector’s Comments:

This is a pretty unique tradition that I haven’t seen with any other groups. It makes sense given X.ado’s religious roots and serves to strengthen the group as well as their religious connection.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Afnan Enayet/Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

  • acapella
  • team
  • ritual
  • bonding

 

 

Meme Ritual

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Title: Meme Ritual

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Ritual, Tradition
  • English
  • USA
  • Informant Data:
    • Tiffany Park ’18
    • Age: 21
    • Birthplace: Findlay, Ohio
      • Grew up in Maryland
    • Major/Minors: Geography major and Education and Public Policy minor
    • Dance Experience prior to Dartmouth: None
    • Joined Street Soul last fall
      • Before joining Street Soul, Tiffany was a part of Sheba

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context

All members of the group participate in this ritual. It occurs after any performance the group has. The tradition has existed for a few years and the informant first experienced it after her first performance.

  • Cultural Context

By making fun of each other’s mistakes in a light-hearted way, the individuals in the group promote the idea that mistakes are perfectly OK in each show and can be used to improve later on. This helps create a friendly and positive culture on the team.

Item:

After a performance, members will look through pictures and videos of the show. They take screenshots or pictures of funny faces, mistakes, and positions, or moves that need to be corrected. These pictures are then sent to the entire group and are used as a way to see what can be improved and what needs to be fixed in a friendly and funny environment.

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

Meme Ritual

Transcript of Associated File:

“The ritual, the Meme Ritual for like after performance, everyone screenshots mistakes or weird facials. It’s just like a way to make light of our mistakes and just like know that ultimately it’s not a big deal. So this past performance i was uh chewing gum, uh during my piece um so I was just like *nom nom* and it looked really, really, really, really funny um so people were calling me out on that which is but it’s like ok you know it’s like um it’s just like oh don’t do it next time it looks silly like um look at her, kinda thing so it’s like really funny. We also like uh there were a couple like winks in there and we were like ooh use it in a flitz like kinda thing.”

Informant’s Comments:

Informant believes that this is a fun way to analyze each show in a not so critical manner.

Collector’s Comments:

I think this sounds like a really funny and cute ritual to have. It’s always funny to look at these things in retrospect and to have your funny faces and mistakes in meme form is very clever.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Alex Chan/Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

  • Dance
  • Team
  • Tradition
  • Ritual
  • memes
  • mistakes

Cipher

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Title: Cipher

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Ritual, Tradition
  • English
  • USA
  • Informant Data:
    • Tiffany Park ’18
    • Age: 21
    • Birthplace: Findlay, Ohio
      • Grew up in Maryland
    • Major/Minors: Geography major and Education and Public Policy minor
    • Dance Experience prior to Dartmouth: None
    • Joined Street Soul last fall
      • Before joining Street Soul, Tiffany was a part of Sheba

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context

The entire group will huddle on the stage after a show. Not every member jumps into the cipher but all members support whoever does. At some shows, Street Soul has partnered with Ujima for the cipher. This tradition is relatively new and has been occurring for about a year.

  • Cultural Context

This tradition helps the group celebrate different members’ of the groups individual dance styles. An important part of the culture in Street Soul is understanding why different people dance and understanding each person’s personality and history, and this tradition reflects that.

Item:

The whole group will gather on stage and huddle around each other. People then take turns jumping into the cipher and dancing however they want. This promotes both street style and freestyle which is important as it allows individual personalities to shine through in a dance.

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

Cipher

Transcript of Associated File:

“So, a new tradition we’re looking to incorporate into our shows is the Cipher, which is a freestyle circle after the show where anyone can go in at any time and just do whatever they feel like at the moment, whatever dance moves come to you in that moment. And it’s really great because it really shows our commitment to the street styles and to freestyling, which is very, very unique to us. None of the other groups are focused on that. And it’s really great because you can see people’s personality through it. Because when you do choreography, it’s often times like, ‘Do da da da da da,’ and everyone’s like, ‘Da da da da da.’ But when you see freestyle, it’s so unique. It’s your own thing and it’s so in that moment and you can’t ever reproduce it. So it’s very, very, very special and I love it. And this time, it was really great because we were able to incorporate Uji[ma] into our Cipher. So this isn’t something that they’re normally accustomed to, but it was so great to see their own individual styles and their uniqueness.”

Informant’s Comments:

Informant believes that this is a way to highlight individual dance moves which may not happen with a choreographed dance which focuses on the group as a whole.

Collector’s Comments:

Whenever I think of people dancing on the street and free styling, I always imagine something similar to Street Soul’s Cipher. It seems like a great ending  to each show and it’s especially cool to see other dance groups jump in with their own interpretation of dancing as well. 

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Alex Chan/Sruthi Pasupuleti/Shinar Jain

Tags/Keywords:

  • Dance
  • Team
  • Tradition
  • Ritual
  • Free styling
  • Street style

Birthdays

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Title: Birthdays

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Ritual, Tradition
  • English
  • USA
  • Informant Data:
    • Tiffany Park ’18
    • Age: 21
    • Birthplace: Findlay, Ohio
      • Grew up in Maryland
    • Major/Minors: Geography major and Education and Public Policy minor
    • Dance Experience prior to Dartmouth: None
    • Joined Street Soul last fall
      • Before joining Street Soul, Tiffany was a part of Sheba

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context

The entire group participates and this has been a ritual for the past 3 or 4 years.

  • Cultural Context

Street Soul uses these birthday celebrations to celebrate each individual member and show that each member is an integral part of the group. By using “Birth” instead of “Birthday”, the celebration offers a unique touch on birthdays. It makes it a street soul celebration rather than a normal birthday party. This tradition reflects the culture of the group which is very inclusive.

Item:

For members of the group’s birthdays, everyone has a big and special celebration. The team makes a poster and a card that read “Happy Birth!” and members go to the room of the person who’s birthday it is to wish them.

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

Birthday

Transcript of Associated File:

“One of the rituals that Street Soul has is like for every members birthday we do a special celebration, which like is a lot , but um, usually we get a big poster everyone signs it and it says happy birth on it instead of happy birthday. And we like go to their room on their birthday and surprise them and it’s like really cute.”

Informant’s Comments:

Informant believes that this is a way to include every individual on the team and show that the group loves having them.

Collector’s Comments:

For a large and inclusive group like Street Soul, hearing that they celebrate every member’s birthday is really cool. I think it’s really great that they do this because since there are a lot of members it makes sure that nobody feels left out compared to the rest of the group.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Alex Chan/Sruthi Pasupuleti

Tags/Keywords:

  • Dance
  • Team
  • Tradition
  • Ritual
  • Birthdays

Dinner Discussions

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Title: Dinner Discussions

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Ritual, Tradition
  • English
  • USA

Informant Data:

  • Tiffany Park ’18
  • Age: 21
  • Birthplace: Findlay, Ohio
    • Grew up in Maryland
  • Major/Minors: Geography major and Education and Public Policy minor
  • Dance Experience prior to Dartmouth: None
  • Joined Street Soul last fall
    • Before joining Street Soul, Tiffany was a part of Sheba

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context

All members of the team attend the dinner discussions. They occur a few times throughout each term during the evening. This tradition is relatively new and has been happening for about two years.

  • Cultural Context

By participating in these dinner discussions, Street Soul aims to foster a community outside of practices beyond dance shows and rehearsals. These discussions are more intimate and personal and allow each member to get to know each other better, which translates to them performing well as a group. These discussions reflect on the culture of Street Soul. Street Soul tries to be an inclusive group and be open to all members, but the culture of the group also focuses heavily on history and understanding the meaning of dance.

Item:

Group members get together, have dinner and discuss a pre-selected topic. Topics are usually related to social justice and dance. These groups discuss these topics to understand why they dance and the history of the group. The discussions also allow freshmen to understand the group on a deeper level and get to know other members.

 

Associated Video:

Dinner Discussions

Transcript: 

“An important group tradition that we’ve recently started is dinner discussions. So basically, we get together have dinner, and there’s usually a topic that we discuss, usually related to social justice and dance. And the reason why that is important is we need to understand why we dance, we need to understand the history of where we come from. And it’s really great for new members because it gives them a perspective on those who have come before them and for themselves, too: why they dance and why they do what they do.”

Collector’s Comments:

I think this is a very intimate way to really introduce the new members of Street Soul to their dancing beyond just physical practices. By providing the context and history of their group and their purposes to each member, I think each member can then have a greater appreciation for their art.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed by: Alex Chan/Sruthi Pasupuleti/Shinar Jain

Tags/Keywords:

  • Dance
  • Team
  • Tradition
  • Ritual