This little girl loves to dance, and can appreciate a fairly wide range of music. K started her early on the heavy stuff. At 6 months she was head banging to Judas Priest DVDs. In the car, she loves it when I put on a Spanish radio station, one with a lot of accordion. When Laurie Berkner comes on Noggin's "Move to the Music," she'll start groovin'. At the mere mention of the word "dance," she'll wiggle her little butt, even if she's sitting down.
Bug has three main, self-inspired dances. One we call the sumodance (hence the name of this site), where she'll spread her legs out really wide, then step side to side, bending the entire top half of her body to the side. Another is the wiggle, which is reminiscent of a drug-crazed, frenzied hula dance, with pretty much just her hips moving. The third is a simple spin; this girl is in desperate need of a sit and spin. Let's rephrase that: Momma is in desperate need of a sit and spin. She scares me with the spinning, because she'll do it till she's completely out of control and veering towards wooden furniture.
Three books in Bug's collection that she particularly loves are "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Ring Around the Rosie," each illustrated with pictures of children doing the dances for the song. She will grab one and bring it to me, either putting a hand on her head, sitting down and reaching out to me, or pulling me to the middle of the floor. She's gone through phases of favoritism with these books. Currently it's all about "Ring Around the Rosie." Thing is, she's more into the spinning than anything else. It takes a bit of coaxing to get her to do the "all fall down"; she's too busy trying to pull me around in circles while I'm stuck on the floor. I've tried to get her to play "Ring Around the Rosie" with Baby, her doll, but so far she's resisted. She spun a little with Baby tonight while I sang the words. When it came time for "all fall down," she threw Baby unceremoniously on the floor and walked away.
The other day, Bug approached my father, holding out her hand. He gave her a finger and stood up, and she started like she was heading for her bedroom (where most of her toys are). She stopped, changing her mind, and led him to the middle of the living room, where she demanded his other hand and started whipping herself around him. I found myself recollecting doing goofy dances with him when I was little; it was so sweet.
