Thank you, Cupid.
No, not the sadistic, weapon-wielding cherub. I’m talking about the guy who delivered the masterpiece known as “The Cupid Shuffle” to the world last year. I never thought much of the song, other than the fact that the dance was a newer, hip version of the Electric Slide. It even includes a little “Walk It Out” segment to show you how modern it is.
Why do I like the song so much, even after a year? Because it’s funny to watch people avoid the dance floor, a few of them jiggling around on the perimeter because they’re too sober and self-conscious to dance. And then, I play the Shuffle and the dance floor fills up as if people were waiting for something to give them permission to dance.
Apparently, a song with instructions done by dozens of other people is okay to dance to, despite its simplistic beat and lyrics. But even the instructions apparently aren’t specific enough for people to understand. To the right, to the right, to the right, to the right. Now kick…
I don’t understand how people can mess up going to the right when the guy is telling you to go to the right. ”Walk it by yourself” is a little confusing for people that don’t know how to walk it out. I think doing the Twist for that turn is acceptable, but I always end up seeing people just doing a 90-degree turn when they realize that everyone around them is facing a different direction.
I can’t dance. Not well. Okay, a little bit. But it only took me a couple of rotations to figure out how to do the dance. And that was watching the 4″ tall video on my computer. If someone is doing it right in front of you, it seems like it would be easy to pick it up, but instead people are stopping and staring at the feet in front of them, going left when the loud voice from the big black boxes says, “to the right.”
And the people that do seem to go in the correct direction don’t seem to put any style into it. Just simple shuffle steps, single kicks, no upper body movement. I have vague memories of line dancing from the few country music videos that MTV used to play and it seems to look like that most of the time. It looks like they’re really concentrating on the steps instead of feeling the music and letting their bodies flow.
It’s entertaining. It used to bother me that people couldn’t do such a simple dance, but it’s really entertaining now. I like to play all the big new songs and watch people hesitate to hit the dance floor, and then throw this year-old song at them to watch them fill the floor and screw up the instructions. I highly recommend playing it to a large group of, um, rhythmically-challenged people. It’ll make your night.
