Woo! Hoo! A good feeling from dance.

Our elder daughter has always loved dance and made it her career.  It clearly gives her a good feeling. And we get a good feeling watching.

Our younger daughter was more into doing handstands up against the wall.  She wanted to be her own person and not copy her big sister.

Now to the boys.

I can’t help thinking that the whole Hip Hop movement made them feel good.  Just at the time they were growing up in secondary school, black music and dance were all the fashion. It did a lot for their self-esteem.  They spent many hours outside our small house, with a piece of lino or carpet on the pavement practising and practising their moves.  The other children down the street were impressed.  Hip Hop was popular with everybody, black and white, but above all the boys knew that this popular kind of dance originated from the black community and it helped with their sense of identity.

One year we went camping in France.  Five of us were crammed into a small Fiat camper van.  I remember how the whole campsite echoed with Michael Jackson music.  Campers came from a wide variety of countries.  It was interesting that so many people were all choosing to play his music.  I think “Thriller” was the most popular.  Sometimes youngsters would be outside their tents practising ‘moonwalking’.  There was a competitive element, but this was a goodnatured competition.

As parents we knew that we had to encourage a sense of black identity in the boys.  We all shared delight in the thought-provoking words of Bob Marley’s songs and thoroughly enjoyed Michael Jackson’s songs and dancing. We were grateful for these aspects of the current culture that inspired our children and made them feel good.