Dance like this...

Dance is one of the simplest forms of communication and expression. Damn....or I shall replace, 'the simplest' for 'the most difficult'. Don't you often feel that words sometimes hide deeper truths that only the body can guess at, but when it comes to dance, it just flows like fluid? Errors, no errors, perfect step, in-correct step, nothing really matters, all that weighs is that it provides some kind of indescribable pleasure sans all inhibitions.

People of all ages dance in discos, pubs, parties, etc giving free expression to their will. Now try this, someone invites you to a dance floor and asks you to shake your hips, (hey unlike Shakira though, as 'Hips don't lie'). No no, I am exaggerating here. All I meant to say was that, you were invited to do, a step here and a step there. Sometimes we acknowledge to such requests without any second thoughts, but sometimes we do hesitate.

Ask a kid, the same, most of the time, the response would be hey-i-was-waiting for that. Dance can include a preset symbolic vocabulary, such as ballet, or it can resort to symbolic gestures, or common signals, as in the case of pantomime, where the body speaks wordlessly. But all these require lots and lots of practice. Now think of something simple by which every human being has the ability to express her/him self through some movement. You get me, right, it's the bindaas type, the last time you did in your graduate school dorm.

Bend, stretch, jump, and gyrate your body. That's exactly what Matt Harding, did with some peachy music playing in the background, dancing in different locations in India, Kuwait, Bhutan, Tonga, Timbuktu and the Nellis Airspace in Nevada, where he performs his act in zero gravity for his road to global fame. Matt didn't follow any steps and rules that are generally conformed to, in any of the dance forms. For him it was simple, a bit of arm-swinging, and then a pinch of butt-shaking, mild spot hopping would sound good for the second bit. Then finally an elementary knee-pumping. Mix these three movements and even though it may appear zany, but these can trigger an endless array of let-me-do-it feelings in any individual.



You are at your work station or in the kitchen or in your reading room or in the bathroom, didn’t you feel, let me try it once. I guess, that was because, KISS (Keep It Simple and Smart) principle was the crux of the video.

Matt Harding, a 31 year old chap today, grew up in Westport, Conn., thought pretty early that college education was not his cup of tea. Having ditched college, he got himself employed in a video game store, as a designer of video games. But above all this, he preferred to travel, from anywhere to everywhere. So now you get the link, how come so many panoramas from across the globe in his video. 14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Brilliant. Matt's site is here.

Now this is a bit of insider info, Matt's girl friend, Melissa Nixon, who works for Google is also related to the video above in some way. The song in the video is sung in Bengali by Palbasha Siddique, a 17-year-old native of Bangladesh now living in Minneapolis. It was Melissa Nixon who had discovered Siddique on YouTube. The song is based on a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate (there is a desi touch in everything.) and the music which is both resilient and spirited is by Gary Schyman, a friend of Matt. As music reverberated in my mind, I got a feeling of the tunes that are played just before the flight is about to land. Don't you feel so? More so felt as though my flight was about to land at Schiphol Airport after hovering over the tulip gardens.

Now you if I jot down the fine points from all these, I have 3 important take-aways.

• Follow KISS principle.
• Internet is the new blood corpuscles of our lives.
• Follow one's own heart and deep dive into something that one is passionate about.

But right now, my bums, my legs, my hands and all my muscles are in a mood to jump, and dance, just as you see in this video.



Do I sound like a nutcase or have I gone cranky?

Keep reading and remain connected.

For the title of the post, we all know that "Hips Don't Lie" is a famous song based in a Salsa and Cumbia mix and fused with reggaeton beat performed by Colombian singer Shakira and Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean. The song is a remake of Jean's 2004 song 'Dance Like This'.