Show Me How To Do Like You
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(Keita) Show me how to do like you
(Aisha) If you say please
(Keita) Please
Since age one Keita knew he had the answer
And it was that someday he'd be a dancer
And with help from his sis
Surely that boy would not miss
From being the baddest dancer in the whole neighborhood
I played this 1980 Stevie Wonder song a lot in the car on trips. Great traveling music. The whole lyric is about socialization, saying please, getting help from sis, and, of course, having the answer as a dancer.
Now, how did Keita know he had the answer? Because his daddy, Stevie Wonder, had the question (taken for granted and left unasked in this song lyric) - whatcha gonna be when you grow up?
The problem or question for us in the 21st Century is: how can I get my neighborhood interested in finding out who is the baddest dancer in the whole neighborhood? For about a century or so we have not been looking for the next Isadora Duncan or the next Gregory Hines in the backyard next door.
And most of the time children are not asking to be shown how to do.
The following chapters and whatever we finally decide to put in the back of the book are just invitations, teasers, hints and helps but not the real thing. The real thing is live, in person, face to face, one on one or in group play, people in action, nothing in print, nothing mediated. We hope you will try out these chapters (and the disc in the back?) just long enough to get frustrated and go find a dancer and a drummer who will respond well to your question: "show me how to do like you?".
Born to Groove