Strictly English

Daniel today stumbled on the new Daddy, the one who is losing weight and awakening to a new level of energy through the power of Zumba.  Because the Scottish part of the old Daddy is still around, the delivery system for Zumba is free Internet videos, rather than some costly "class" at a masochistic "fitness" "club".  So Madeleine and Daniel walked in as the Zumba de Caiparinha was underway on the ole' browser in the kitchen, with wholesome Brazilian young ladies dancing on a South Atlantic beach with a Portuguese rap in the background.  Daniel joined  in a bit, and Madeleine was very curious - even having me pick her up so she could see the laptop better on the kitchen counter, but after the initial breakthrough, Daniel had a troubling change of heart:

"I only dance to English music... or English parts of music."

I don't think it was the Portuguese text, or even the Brazilian provenance of the video that disturbed him.  I'm certain that by "English" he didn't mean "American."  I think, rather, that he has probably developed into something of an Anglophile, with a touch of snobbery for anything beyond the British Isles, or even north of Hadrian's Wall.

I would normally seek to broaden his horizons, but I am paralyzed by the recognition that I was once in his own shoes, although they were larger and didn't have Spider Man on them.  In the 80's, and even the 90's, I, too, had no interest in dancing to anything that wasn't blatantly, even flamboyantly, English.  Duran Duran, New Order, The Human League, maybe a bit of Depeche Mode, Information Society, and, of course The Pet Shop Boys.  Also a few others of the same ilk, but categorically English.  I really had no interest in dancing to anything that wasn't English - or parts of music that had English elements to them.

So some day Daniel will see the wonder of Zumba, and many other post-80's genres, I'm sure, but all these things come in due time.  In the interim, I should let him enjoy the exhilaration of the Second British Invasion until he has worked his way through that phase of dancing as I once managed to do.  In the interim, I'm going to have to hang out with him more, to find out what kinds of clubs still play this hot, hoppin' music of the 80's, in the New Hampshire of 2012.

(December 24, 2012)