All Movement is a Dance
Our entire body communicates. With each movement, we convey our preference to interact or to not interact.
Last fall, Gary and I were walking with Nova in her stroller, and we passed a man admiring a building’s architecture. He gestured at the facade of the building, sweeping his arms up to follow staircases, along the outdoor patios, railings, windows, his hips, legs and feet following his arms, in appreciation of the angles and of the gathering spaces. He ended by saying how much he’d like to be invited to a party hosted on one of those patios. I was interested in hearing more, but my husband forged on. The man followed us, continuing to talk and gesture.
Contrast this with a woman we’d see frequently at a local park when our granddaughter was still an infant. She would politely respond to our greeting but her flat tone and body language made it clear she had no interest in interaction.
On an outing to a local grocer, Nova wanted to walk so she could pull stuff off shelves but was in her stroller for that reason. We walked towards a woman who greeted us, with eyes clearly on Nova. Nova responded with a lift of her foot, pointed at her shoes and said, “on, on.” I explained she was saying she has her shoes on. The woman lifted her foot, pointed to it, and said to our toddler, “I have my shoes on too!”
Interactions can suddenly become dance. As we stroll the sidewalk, we often run into a woman who reminds me of Jim Carrey in The Mask. She is tall and lithe and wears loose-fitting slacks, vests, a hat, and a bow tie. And a mask. She communicates with words but often adds a little dance, and I join her.
Last summer, my daughter and I were pushing Nova in her stroller to an outdoor market, when a woman at a bus stop spontaneously engaged with us. Nova was dressed in boyish hand-me-downs but the woman called her “she.” I asked how she knew Nova was a girl. She explained, “Boy babies don’t dance. Your baby girl was dancing in her stroller.”
Nova loves to dance, just like her Mama and her Nana. Nova’s stroller wiggling is one of her many dances.