Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Folk Dance: An Occupation For Building Community, Wendy Price

Online Theses and Dissertations

This pilot ethnographic study describes the behaviors and values among the members of a central Appalachian folk-dancing community. The participants were four women, three adults and one teenager, each of whom were long-standing members of the community. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and participant observation, as the principal researcher had been a member of this community for 12 years at the time of the study. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and subjected to cross-case analysis. Codes informed categories, from which emerged two overarching themes regarding values held by this community: hospitality and human connection. Hospitality encompassed practices related to …