Dance To The Music
Recently, my son Linus took up a new interest around the house. Each day, he will grab me (or his mother) by the hand, and say "Dance, Daddy. Dance." And so we go to the living room, crank up the stereo, and cut the proverbial rug. Sometimes we all dance at once.
It's an odd thing, though. I'm one of those people that always wanted to be in the band, so I wouldn't have to feel self-conscious about how I was moving out in the crowd. I don't dance in public unless I've been drinking heavily. I enjoy dancing, more or less, and think it's a great thing to do. But I don't do it. Jane probably has less inhibition about dancing in public than I do, but either way, it's not like Linus grew up in a household that was a constant Soul Train reenactment.
So why does he dance? I know they dance at school, but he's carried it forward, with no inhibitions. And the boy's got moves! I've counted about 15 different moves that he will do all on his own, including some weird stop-motion break-dance moves, a thing where he puts his hands on the floor and kicks his feet in the air, the Travolta move from Saturday Night Fever, some bizarre hand-jive kind of deal...he just goes nuts. I taught him the moonwalk, which to him is just walking backwards. But he's watching my feet...He'll be scooting across the floor in no time at this pace.
James Brown's "Top Of The Stack" is a Linus favorite...
A corrollary to this is that he's now very interested in the music we are playing. I made him a CD with great dance songs; he's beginning his education about different types of music, which is something I hope we share as he gets older. His body just seems to know how to move to certain kinds of music. We were at a pizza place Saturday when Madonna's "Material Girl" came on the juke box, and there he goes out in the middle of the floor, doing his "Karate Chop And Skip Dance". Totally uninhibited and free and hilarious and beautiful.
...as is Madonna's "Immaculate Collection".
I don't want him to lose this love of movement. In the beginning, my first thought was that I can't let on how uncomfortable it makes me to dance. I didn't want him to catch the fear that I had. And then I realized, I wasn't uncomfortable dancing with him at all; he had broken down my barriers. He shows pure uninhibited joy through movement when he dances.
Nothing will bring a smile to your face faster than seeing your three year old get funky to "Jungle Boogie" by Kool & The Gang.
12:29:18 PM 
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