Friday, November 19, 2010

Anthropological Study: SA Mating Rituals: The Jive

Bar, club, lounge, tavern, whatever you call it, and wherever it is, the same scene plays out again and again.

There is music of the loud and thumping variety and there are men and women hoping to attract each other with the awesomeness of their dance moves.In South Africa, however, people do not dance. They jive. The best way I can describe what jiving looks like is as follows:

Imagine a tyrannosaurus rex with its really small arms. Now imagine a person imitating a crimpled, limp tyrannosaurus rex. Shoulders up, elbows in, wrists flapping in the breeze. Got it? Okay, now picture said person hurling their body with great force in a series of random directions at high speed. In order to prevent themselves from toppling over entirely, they keep their feet in constant motion. It might appear that they are attempting to trip themselves. In fact, they are just trying to remain vertical.

Done well, this display is quite impressive. Done poorly, well, it's still a lot more interesting than what you might see in America.

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