I don’t know how many of you have stuck your head inside a dance club recently, watched a music video from Christina or Fergie, or noted some of the headlines about school dance regulations floating around (see this article in the Washington Post, for example), but as a parent, there’s something inherently terrifying about all this. Are there no safe role models when a kid just wants to get down and get funky? I suggest that one need look no further than the Geek ranks for a suitable dance instructor.
There are a number of candidates here, but, in my opinion, it’s tough to beat Talking Heads front man, David Byrne; he gets my vote for Geek Lord of The Dance. Horn rimmed glasses? Check. Fascination with technology, media and subjects outside the mainstream? Well, Byrne has always been a music and video pioneer and his 2003 book release E.E.E.I. (Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information) with accompanying PowerPoint presentations on DVD is pretty much the icing on the cake for that one.
And most importantly for the purposes of this premise: a repertoire of funky, non-threatening dance moves, most of which are odd enough to appeal to a kid, yet also easy to emulate. Just check out the video for Once In A Lifetime. There’s a whole slew of moves the kids can try; at least half a dozen. Consider it a kid-friendly, three and a half minute crash course on how to dance like a Geek.
Disclaimer: Depending on where you live and how old your kids are, accompanying self-defense courses may not be a bad idea if they’re going to display these fresh moves in a public setting…
For an added bonus, I challenge my kids to keep up with Byrne’s running on the spot move, as illustrated in the Road To Nowhere video. This one’s a secret weapon for tiring them out…
