Title: Sweet Sixteen Father Daughter Dance

General Information:

• Folklore Form/Genre: North American Initiation Rituals
• Informant: Lindsey Beaudoin
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States of America
• Place Collected: First Floor Berry
• Date: 11/8/18

Informant Data:

• Lindsey Beaudoin, 19, was born on February 8^th, 1999 in Pensacola, Florida. She then moved to Virginia for three years, then to Massachusetts for five years, and finally Bedford, New Hampshire for the rest of her childhood. Lindsey herself did not have a sweet sixteen, but she attended her close friend, Jill Tokac’s, sweet sixteen.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Lindsey Beaudoin and her friend Jill Tokac both grew up in Bedford, New Hampshire and they both attended Bedford High School, a public high school with approximately fifteen hundred students. Jill Tokac is Caucasian, and she comes from an upper middle-class background.
• Cultural Context: Only a few people in Bedford, New Hampshire celebrate their sixteenth birthday with a sweet sixteen celebration. However, those who did have parties had very elaborate parties.

Item:

• Jill Tokac’s sweet sixteen consisted of an elaborate party to which approximately two hundred people were invited. During the celebration, one important event that happened was the dance between the father and daughter. Before the dance party started, Jill and her father got up and danced in front of the other party guests. They danced to a song that meant a lot to both of them, and it was reminiscent of the dance that happens between the bride and the groom at weddings. Later in the night, her father was also one of the people who gave a speech about her, talking about how much he loved her and about her bright future ahead of her.

Audio:

Transcript:

E: So Lindsey, could you describe the tradition?

L: So, the tradition at this party was, it was a pretty, like, formal “you’re in dressed up” and there was a dance party, and it started out with a dance between Jill, the girl who was celebrating her sweet sixteen, and her father.

E: And can you explain how this ceremony symbolized her transition to womanhood?

L: It was kind of a, like, I don’t know, I guess very formal, like, ceremonial thing, like it happens at weddings, and her father was also one of the people that kind of, that gave a speech about, like, how she had grown up and changed and sort of, like, become an adult over the sixteen years, so like, it was kind of, like, tangible representation of her, like, becoming a woman, and turning sixteen.

E: Alright, thank you.

Informant’s Comments:

• The dance was symbolic of her father being the first man in her life, and it was a moment for the father to cherish his daughter one last time before she went into womanhood. Everyone was just watching them dance and it was such a great moment to witness.

Collector’s Comments:

• This tradition reminds me a lot of the father daughter dance that happens during quinceañeras. It’s interesting to see how aspects of other cultures have found their way into sweet sixteens since the USA is considered to be a melting pot of cultures.

Collector’s Information:

Edward Lu, 18

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH

Russian 13, Fall 2018

Professor Mikhail Gronas

Professor Valentina Apresyan

Tags/Keywords:

• Sweet Sixteen
• Quinceañera
• Father Daughter Dance
• Adulthood
• Womanhood