Tag Archives: dance

The Ha’a

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Title: The Ha’a

General Information about Item:

  • Genre/Sub-genre: Customary and Verbal folklore: Tradition
  • Language: Hawaiian/English
  • Country: USA

Informant Data:

  • Bun Straton
    • From Honolulu, Hawaii
    • Age 20
  • Kamana Hobbs
    • From Honolulu, Hawaii
    • Age 20

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Polynesian culture is rich in art and various types of expression, especially through body movements and dance.
  • Social Context: While not used in war anymore, the Ha’a is most often preformed before football games by the University of Hawai’i football team with the same aim of intimidating their opponents.

Item:

A branch of an ancient dancing tradition that stems from the collective Polynesian islands and cultures. It is performed primarily before battle to intimidate opponents, and can also be done before weddings and funerals. It is seen as a farewell and greeting dance at times. The Ha’a is a  dance that varies across cultures but has the same basic elements of War or Death, Sun or Warmth, and Life or Living. Components  of the dance are identifiable by bent knees, heavy use of facial expressions and strong, aggressive movements. In New Zealand it goes by the Haka to the Maori people, in Samoa it is referred to as the Manu Siva Tau and in Hawaii it is called the Ha’a

Collector: Nigel Alexander 20′

Tags/Keywords: dance, war,Haka, Ha’a, tradition, Hawaii, Maori, Samoa

The Medley

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Title: The Medley

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Dance, Tradition, Song
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: USA

Informant Data:

Ethan Isaacson lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is currently a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2018. He was born on January 5th, 1996, and is studying chemistry and physics. He went on freshman trips when he was an incoming freshman, was a trip leader his sophomore year, and was on Hanover Croo, known as HCroo, this past fall, so has seen many different aspects of the trips program.

Leigh Steinberg was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was born on April 19, 1996. She is a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2018 and is a history major and plans on going into consulting after graduation. She was a trip leader before her sophomore year of college and was on Hanover Croo, known as HCroo, this past fall.

Contextual Data:

The Medley is taught first by HCroo and then by Lodj Croo again to the trippees. It is the first thing that happens on trips, as before trippees even meet people on their trips or their trip leaders, they do the medley, making it a defining moment in their Dartmouth careers. It is meant to build bonds and reduce the awkwardness.

Item:

One of the most iconic parts of trips is the dances to certain songs. The playlist of songs, known as the medley, all have choreographed line dances that HCroo and Lodj Croo members teach the incoming freshman each year. The playlist changes slightly every year, but there are some permanent fixtures like Everytime we Touch, I’m on a Roll, and Blame it on the Boogie. However, there are some songs that only are in the medley for a year, like Waka Waka and September. The dances really help freshman overcome the awkwardness, and by the time trips ends, people get very into the dances.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

So we call it the medley. So it’s like 4 or 5 per year, some of them are permanent fixtures, some of them rotate. They are pop songs that most people know with simple dances that we can easily teach people. Line dances. Um that’s like pretty much it. It’s like very much a cornerstone of trips culture. I would say especially Everytime we Touch, which is the main one. It’s a fun way to break down barriers, and I don’t know, as an HCrooling, it is cool because we got to see them do the dances at three different points. So they did them like the first afternoon when they got to the lawn. Some of them were super receptive, some of them, like section B for us, we couldn’t get a single one to do them. It was brutal. But then we also see them dance again later that night after the safety show. And even in those like 8 hours between those two, they are so much more comfortable dancing in Sarner Underground with us after we have performed the Safety Show and everyone gets really into it. And we also get to see them when they get back from the Lodj, they may or may not be sick of it, but they definitely participated and were happy to do it one more time, so it’s kind of cool we get to see them, like the uh it’s like a proxy to see how they are feeling about trips and Dartmouth at that time. And to see them getting more comfortable and enjoying them is cool.

The songs this year, the permanent ones were Everytime We Touch, which we learned cuz we crashed a wedding was, is more recent than we think, maybe from 2011. So its super recent. And then Blame it on the Boogie by the Jackson 5 is a permanent one. Yeah that’s permanent. So like sunshine moonlight good times. Um, another recent one is I’m on a Roll. My ex wants sex tonight, we pulled that line out. And um Salty Dog Rag, those are the four.

Every year, the directorate makes a new one, but these have a varying degree of stickiness. For example, one year it was Waka Waka, but I think that got cut out. One year it was Shut up and Dance, but that year, the Lodj captains for our year, made that, so they did it at the Lodj but we didn’t because no one on our croo knew it. And then September was this year and it was not a well thought out dance so we did not have people do it.

Informant’s Comments:

  • They said that after a few days of doing the dances multiple times, they got sick of them quite quickly.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Not everybody knows that it is called the medley, as some people just know them as the trips songs and dances

Collector’s Name: Henry Senkfor

Tags/Keywords:

  • Medley, Everytime we Touch, DOC, trips, dance, tradition
Link

Second Line

Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang- associated Customary, tradition, dance, celebration

English

United States of America

Context:a line of people dancing to traditional New Orleans music while waving handkerchiefs and following a leader with an umbrella. Originally performed  on the way back from a jazz funeral after the deceased has been interred and is meant as a celebration of the deceased’s life and their acceptance into the afterlife. Has developed into a New orleans celebration, seperate from the morbid beginnings and is synonomous with the city and celebrations in general.

Transcript:

“New Orleanians will use any excuse to throw a party, have a parade or have a ‘second line’, during a second line participants will dance  and sing to New Orleans tunes following a line that weaves throughout  the restaurant out onto the street, following a person with a second  line umbrella and waving handkerchiefs. New Orleanians will honor their deceased musicians by throwing them a jazz funeral, that includes a second line.”

Collectors Commentary: The word second line itself, some from a decription of people returning to their homes after a funeral, it is the “second line” that forms as they begin to sing and dance and play music in celebration of the deceased. Now, the religious tones of the tradition have been reduced and second lines are not strictly limited to occuring after funerals, but have instead developed into a celebration and tradition associated with the city and the culture of Jazz and celebration. The slang word is used in speach as a thing synonomous with the culture of the city an is unique as folk speach because it does not exist elsewhere.

Key words: New Orleans, second Line, jazz funeral, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, celebration, dance

 

Music as Communication among Peers

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Music as Communication among Peers

Informant information:

Mary Kate resides in Andover, Massachusetts. She has a daughter who has an undiagnosed developmental disorder. Her daughter is nine years old and participates in the” My Own Voice” choir, a choir for children with special needs in Andover.

Type of lore: Customary

Genre: Children’s Folklore

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Social / Cultural Context:

Mary Kate and Neal’s daughter cannot speak even though she is now nine years old as a result of an undiagnosed developmental disorder. Among the challenges this presents, she often has a difficult time connecting with her peers. This video captures how she and her peers created a methods of sharing a common act on a daily basis.

 

Informant’s comments:

The “typical” girls that [our daughter] is friends with at school also use music and songs to connect to her. They make up dances to show the teacher and even have a secret handshake which is really an elaborate high five routine with some dance moves and a sing songy recital of the moves. I would say this is the most included that [she] has been in the classroom in a long while and it is through music and movement.

Collector’s comments: 

This seems to be a piece of true children’s folklore, the girls work on songs, dances and routines like this together. What makes this particular one special is how it is in an effort to communicate with the girl who has special needs in a way that she is capable of reciprocating. At the end of the video one girl raises her hands and begins to shake them, which symbolizes applause in American Sign Language.

Tags/Keywords: Music, Communication, Custom, Special needs, Children, Dance, American Sign Language