November 17, 2020

The Xiguan Shuffle

We’ll put this under ‘Walking and Dancing.’

The principle at Xi Guan Elementary School, Zhang Pengfei, introduced his students to shuffle dancing  as a way to both provide some outdoor exercise for his students and to amuse them with a distraction from phones and computers. Undoubtedly Chinese: the principle leads and barks orders, the students are perfectly synchronized, the dancing is both comical and disciplined – and when you look at the kids, it seems charming as well as fun and healthy. (Click on title for video.)

 

“The dance is called the Melbourne shuffle, or shuffle dance, that originated in Australia in the 1980s. With energetic steps, it is becoming a new form of “square dance” occupying China’s urban spaces from parks to plazas and a popular pound-losing exercise for many elderly and middle-age Chinese.

What a blending of cultures.  Very West Pacific.

 

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  1. Gord I have to gently protest. This strikes me as Riverdance before the lobotomy. Turning large groups into synchronised obedient automatons is not charming, it’s dangerous. Picture how beautifully the brownshirts and Hitler Youth marched before they escorted the Jews and Gypsies and gays to the ovens.
    That being said, der Führer kann sicher tanzen (the leader sure can dance).

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