Do you go dancing in the street?
First of all on this most wonderful of Friday mornings, I wanted to give you the gift of laughter with something awesome.
Now that's out of the way, I can get to what I wanted to talk about today which is the phenomenon I have dubbed "dancing in the street".
I don't mean the kind of dancing you're probably thinking of though, because the only times I have done that have tended to be on long walks home at dawn after being out all night. On those occasions I have been aided by the awesomeness of an iPod or my phone to provide the accompanying tunes.
However, there is something like this that takes place when two people are walking towards each other and realise their paths may cross. They often correct themselves and then both end up heading for a collision and finally it comes to the point where they have to stop and decide which way to go to get around each other.
When they step left, you step left, they step right when you do and then there's the awkward moment when you just stand there and wait for the other person to go and end up apologising and breaking out into a totally embarrassed smile.
This has been happening to me more than usual lately and I decided to more actively study it. In theory, we're all vibrating balls of energy so we must have directional energy flows extending out from our body in the direction we're intending to walk. My theory is that our senses become alerted when someone crosses this energy path and from that point on we're trying to figure out which way that person is going to go and they're experiencing the same thing.
This is possibly what causes the side-step routine in the street because both brains are vibrating at a very high frequency and causing a scrambling or jamming effect, therefore causing us to end up in front of each other. That, of course, could be a total bunch of complete twaddle, but it makes sense to me. How else can we explain this?
Have you ever had that awkward moment when you end up almost crossing paths with a person and have to dance in the street with them? Did the dancing DJ make you smile?
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couldn't see the dancing DJ :-( must be being jammed by the work server. But I street dance all the time, my brain waves must be oscillating at some weired frequency that completely mucks up both my and others trajectory. That or I am just completely absent minded and don't concentrate on where I'm going... I'm also very good at walking into doors, that are open, knocking myself cold on one such occaision. I swear that things purposely move and put themselves into my path... trees, rocks, parked cars, other people are just a much nicer extension of this :) great way to meet people tho.
Does it count as "dancing in the street" when people quickly pick-up their children and run across the road, while simultaneously checking that I'm not following them AND trying to avoid catching my eye, when they see me walking towards them on the footpath? ;-)
That was a good laugh Thank You :) The glasses going on to change tracks - brilliant!
The street/walkway dancing happens from time to time, I tend to think it's just a coincidental syncronisation of your paths to avoid one another. If we just obeyed a keep left rule or something!
Er, no. Normally, what happens is that I see I am about to walk into someone as we are both walking the same line. Unless I want to walk into that person, I realise that I will need to adjust my line.
The other person obviously, also looking where he/she is going, obviously also has the same thoughts, and neither of us being able to predict which way the other person is going to go, happens to pick the same line. Oops.
With a 50/50 chance of doing so, it's going to happen. Unless we want to institute hard and fast rules that you must always choose the left side (your own left, which is different to the other persons left).
There's nothing deep and spiritual about it.
I don't know why this is a problem, just as on the road you should head to the left when face with someone head on.
The DJ was uber lame, wanna see something funny on youtube "search for 'Double Rainbow'
Love the dancing DJ - where on earth do you find these things?? He looks a cross between a high-end conductor and someone having an epileptic fit!!
Was really funny walking home one night recently about midnight, and I did a dance on the street with a guy walking the other way when there was NO traffic and NO other people on the street (and we both seemed relatively sober). Very amusing, we just laughed and kept walking in our respective directions. Kept me smiling all the way home.
Other experiences of street dancing mostly seems to happen when I have a lot on my mind and while I think I know where I'm going (walking-wise) I must be giving out weird direction signals. Don't mind when this happens with a cute guy though.
i couldnt see the dancing DJ either :-( But yay for a gorgeous sunny Friday in Welly today!
Someone once told me a theory- just stick with your path direction and dont move/sidestep to avoid someone- that way you wont bump into each other- they'll go around you. has actually worked a few times ive tried it.
I'm like a modern female moses.. I part the queen st crowds with divine assistance and people just flow around me. Very rarely is there an awkward dancing moment.
@Darth Michael - Further evidence of your misuse of the force i see.
@ Darth - Maybe it's the helmet? Or maybe you have residual Ewok blood on you.
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When this happens to me I make a point of saying "You dance divinely," to whom ever I am trying to get past. Usually gets a laugh.