Sidetabs vs Sash and Questions

[Privateer6]

Ok folks, please bear with me. When I started out, I was told you wanted a sash and garters. After talkign to a few people, and reading some info I've been given, it appears that woven side tabs are what is in. So I come to the experts on this website, should I stick with a sash or go with side tabs?

Question 1A: I was told that how you wore your sash also had a meaning, usually your marital status: single, married, and married but looking anyway. Was this some fun or does how you wear your sash have a meaning. If it does what is it. Reply in PM if need be.

Question 2: I was told only 1 feather in the spreader, but after seeing a few straight dancers here in NC, as well as some pics the gallery, I noticed that some staright dancers are wearing 2 feathers? Is this a new thing or again does it mean something?

Thanks
GJJudd

[Historian]

...should I stick with a sash or go with side tabs?

Question 1A: I was told that how you wore your sash also had a meaning, usually your marital status: single, married, and married but looking anyway. Was this some fun or does how you wear your sash have a meaning. If it does what is it. Reply in PM if need be.

Question 2: I was told only 1 feather in the spreader, but after seeing a few straight dancers here in NC, as well as some pics the gallery, I noticed that some staright dancers are wearing 2 feathers? Is this a new thing or again does it mean something?

Thanks
GJJudd

It has been my experience that most Straight Dancers in Oklahoma wear a beaded belt and finger woven side tabs (with matching finger woven garters). I should point out that the side tabs an evolution from what used to be a finger woven sash worn around the waist, under the shirt. With the manner the sash was tied, the long ends of the the sash would hang down just behind the hip bone on each side of the dancer. As years progressed, someone got the idea to just wear that part of the sash that shows (the side tabs as they are called now), instead of making the whole thing.

As to particular meanings of wearing the finger woven sash as a belt on the outside of the shirt, and what the meanings are as to how it is tied, someone else will have to jump in here, as I have no information on that aspect.

As far as the number of feathers in a Straight Dancer's hair roach, again in my experience, the traditional manner in Okahoma was to wear one feather. (I have been told that the single feather in the old days represented the first war honor of the first degree that a warrior had earned.) Why some Straight Dancers have recently gone to wearing two roach feathers may indicate a personal preference or be representative of the influence from the Northern Traditional styles more than anything else I suspect.