This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1,603.
How talking about dance can help you in the business English world.
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Did you know that even the topic of dance can be a way to build relationships in business?
Today find out what the common line dances are in American culture and how to ask your colleagues or native speaking friends about their dance experiences.
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Hey there, Michelle.
How's it going today?
We are on YouTube.
Hello.
Yes, yes, yes.
I am excited to be here on YouTube today with you.
Lindsay, how are you?
Oh my gosh.
I'm feeling good.
I'm wearing my yellow Allers English t-shirt today, as you can see.
So I'm happy to be sporting the Allers English colors.
Yes yes, yes.
Oh my gosh, i love it.
That is such a cool t-shirt, so it's cool.
Um lindsey, i wanted to get us on video today because maybe we'll do some dancing.
Oh my gosh that's, that's terrifying michelle, Don't worry.
Don't worry.
Not that much.
And probably it really we can only be seen from, you know, like a certain point of our body up.
So there's not much that we can do.
But guys, we recently did an episode about old TV shows.
Right.
And that nostalgia that kind of brings about connection.
Yes.
So today, though, we wanted to talk about dances, specifically line dances.
So but guys, to listen to that episode, that was episode 1577, which was you got it, dude.
How to use TV nostalgia to connect in English.
Remember that one, Lindsay?
Oh, my gosh, I was just listening to that the other day.
And I realized it is such a good connection skill when you can hear someone make a reference to a TV show and respond to them with another reference that makes sense.
That is like high, high level connection.
Right.
That even some native speakers can't do it because it's just not.
They don't have, they're not well versed in pop culture, or they just don't have the quickness of mind to do it.
So you can do that, guys.
You can make any connection.
So today is just an extension of that theme, using pop culture specifically.
Dance today to do the same thing.
Exactly.
I mean, Lindsay, did you go to dance parties growing up?
Yeah, I remember.
I do remember dance class where we learned all these dances that we're going to talk about today.
Macarena, the chicken dance, awful line dances, these horrible, horrible, cheesy dances.
We learned them in sixth grade.
Part of our gym class, we actually went to a dance company and we learned them.
But it's a life skill, right?
Because every wedding and every reunion, they always come up.
It is, and that's the end.
That's the low point of the night in my mind, but it's fun.
Oh my gosh, that's so funny.
I know like I remember um school dances, like in middle school.
Yeah, do you remember?
They had the.
I don't know if they had this in your school, but the cell phone rule, What's that?
It was, well, this was one, you know, cell phone.
I'm thinking like the Saved by the Bell type cell phones, right?
There's my reference.
Uh-huh.
Watch the other episode, guys.
But it was like you know, for when people were dancing they had to like dance like cell phone with the part, so that they weren't closer.
Yeah.
OK.
Oh, OK.
Yeah.
Because they want to make sure kids don't get too close.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm nervous about it.
So, yeah, I remember there was like, you know, that the principal would walk around with a phone.
Oh, my gosh.
That's so funny.
It's so, isn't that funny?
Um so, but it was always exciting to go to the school dance, i mean, but it was always like a little scary too, because if you liked someone and then it was a big deal, do you remember?
It was like oh like, this person wants to dance with you, or like, or you want to dance with this person, and then like it's like a whole group gathers around and like, i'm glad i know i don't have to do that anymore.
Yeah, those days are very much over, but they were awkward years, right.
They were awkward years.
Middle school is the worst.
But it's also kind of fun because you're growing up, you're exploring the world as a young adult.
It's kind of cool.
It's kind of cool.
Looking back on it, I'm like, oh, that was fun.
But like going through it, I don't know.
Yeah.
I mean, don't you think Michelle, that these are the kinds of conversations you might actually have with business colleagues in a business situation even?
What do you think?
Like reflecting on middle school, high school sometimes?
Yeah.
I mean it's funny because like, I don't think, like for our listeners, they might be like, why would you talk about this dancing right in business?
But you do, guys.
I mean this is a connection skill uh, for the business world as well as your general conversations.
I mean lindsay, why do you think it is good for business?
I think it shows who we are.
You know, if you say, you know, say when I was a kid, I love the Macarena.
I love that dance.
You show another side of yourself, right?
We do business with people, not with, you know, robots right now, at least.
Yeah, exactly.
So build the connection, build the relationship.
And the reason we're talking about business is what, Michelle?
What is going on in the month of July?
Jessica and Aubrey are doing a web class.
And this is about phone calls in English.
So it's three steps to fearless phone calls in English.
Guys, we know that you want to feel better, more confident talking on the phone.
That is definitely a business skill.
So they are going to teach you how to do it.
Oh, my gosh.
I think this is going to be a really popular web class.
And we do have a limit, guys, to the room number.
So make sure you sign up, put it on your calendar and show up early.
Show up five minutes early to pre-party with us.
And how to sign up, Michelle, where can they go?
How do they sign up?
Yeah.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash phone.
Yeah, and it's coming at the end of July, guys.
So sign up today.
All right, Michelle.
So we know this is useful in the business context or in social contexts.
So what do we need to know then to make this work, to talk about dancing?
Okay, well, we're going to talk about some dances that we did as kids, guys.
These may or may not have been at high school.
Some are, some are newer.
Some might be older.
But we're going to go through.
We're going to talk about these dances and what these dances, what these songs bring us back to.
What does that mean to bring, like if I say like, oh, that brings me back?
What does that mean?
Oh my gosh.
It transports me to another place in my mind.
And I was just thinking, Michelle.
This episode is going to be super relevant for our listeners because, around the world, I feel like different cultures treasure dance even more than we do.
For example, when I was living in Argentina, I started to learn the tango, right?
To learn the tango.
Are you in South America?
The salsa, right?
Dance is so big around the world.
So I'm excited for our listeners to get this skill.
Definitely.
So guys, we're going to give you some key questions to keep in mind that you could use in these conversations.
Okay.
And this could be, like we said, it could be in your casual conversations, but it could also be in business.
It could be at a networking event, right?
You want to connect, like Lindsay said, with the people.
Yes.
All right.
What's the first thing you could say?
Yes.
Okay.
So here it is, guys.
The key question, write this down.
Did you do the X at dances when you were a kid?
Like, did you do the Macarena?
Did you do the what?
What's another example of a dance?
The YMCA.
Okay.
Yeah.
The YMCA.
Right.
Or the YMCA.
Did you do that dance as a kid?
What else, Michelle?
What else can we say?
Or you could say, do you still remember how to do the, right?
Like, do you still remember how to do the electric slide?
Oh, the electric slides, the other one, right?
These are all very typical line dances in American culture.
And you guys probably have your own, like we said, your own or your own traditional dance, like the tango, like the salsa, whatever it is.
Okay, next one, Michelle, what is your favorite line dance?
What is your favorite dance in general?
Right?
Yeah, right.
Exactly.
I mean, what is what's a line dance?
Lindsay, we didn't ask you.
Yeah, I was hoping you would define that.
But okay, so I actually have to look at it, which is so funny.
But I believe that a line dance is just where it's people standing in a line, right?
Like when you think of like the electric slide, it's like everybody's like kind of dancing in this formation.
So I think that's where that comes from.
Right.
And we see this a lot in country Western dancing, too.
I guess you could say that some country Western dancing is line dancing too, because you always see people holding their belt buckles.
It's a stereotype, really, that I have in my head.
But I'm out here in the West, so I got to check out some line dancing, I guess.
Yeah at it right um, and then you could also kind of make fun of it a little bit because, like lindsey, i mean we're having a funny, fun time, like just laughing about it because some of them are so ridiculous.
They're all kind of ridiculous, but you could say like oh, which line dance do you find most annoying, or like most ridiculous, or something like that just as a joke.
The ones that I find the most annoying are where you have to grab the shoulders of the person, the people behind you, and you make a big line around the dance floor.
It's so cheesy.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
It's so bad.
It's so bad.
I don't know.
So let's go through.
We've mentioned some of these already, but we have some different ones.
So we have the Macarena, right?
So, Lindsay, tell me your memories of the Macarena.
Did you do the Macarena at dances when you were a kid?
Yeah, sure.
It goes back to that, that dance class I told you about in sixth grade, learning it as a clear like part of gym class and then using it, I guess, at those middle school dances.
I guess they were preparing us for the middle school dances.
We certainly use this.
And I loved it.
I loved it.
I thought it was so cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know.
Yeah, I remember doing it too.
And it did definitely feel very cool.
So that was that's from 1993.
Yeah, I love it.
And it's by Los Del Rio.
And that's the name of the group, right, Michelle?
Exactly.
And then I mentioned it, the YMCA.
That's way back from 1978.
That's by the Village People.
Lindsay.
Yes, of course.
Yeah, of course.
And I do.
I still remember how to do it.
These are things that are in muscle memory.
We don't forget, especially we learn it when we're young and they're just fun.
I guess for me, the YMCA is the best.
Personally, it's my favorite out of all these.
The YMCA.
I mean, gosh.
So wait, 1978.
So how old is that song?
It's super old.
I have to do the math on that one.
That's many years, Michelle.
It's yeah, but it's still so popular.
And I don't like when you're at any of these kinds of dances or like.
You know, I don't know.
It's just, I don't know.
I don't know.
I haven't been to a dance in a while, actually.
Maybe it doesn't play anymore.
I think it does.
You think it does?
I hope so.
That's a good one.
And then we're going to fast forward several years to 2000, which is by well the Cha-Cha Slide by DJ Casper.
Do you remember that one?
Yeah, I think this one I find particularly annoying.
Me too.
Yeah, because it's almost like he's giving you in the song.
He gives you instructions of what to do, if I'm thinking of the right one.
It's just annoying.
I know that we can't sing it, but there's one particular noise or jingle part of it that always just drove me crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah, guys, unfortunately, we can't sing these due to rights and that kind of thing.
So we're respecting that today.
But go look it up on YouTube and you will find these dances probably clips from people's weddings or events, or middle school dances, things like that.
You get plenty of content there.
The hokey pokey also terrible.
I think of this as more of a kid's dance.
Yeah, but...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That is definitely – that you would see at like a children's birthday party, something like that.
I don't even know who wrote that or the year or anything.
I just – I feel like it's like happy birthday, right?
It's like just like from – it's like so old i don't even know doesn't belong to anyone, it's so general, i don't know.
But of course it does.
It didn't just like come with the earth, but like um uh yeah, i don't know um.
And then there was the electric slide which we remembered, which i used to love the electric slide.
That was 1996, i believe marcia griffiths do.
Did you do this one?
Yeah, of course.
And you know, when you're doing them, you have fun, especially when you're a kid.
It's just fun.
I mean, music just makes us feel good.
This is the universal language.
We know this connects us with our listeners, right?
Having these experiences whether it's as a kid or in recent parties or events reunions, class reunions that you have fun when you're dancing, you're moving, you feel the rhythm.
It's just it's a human thing.
I
And everybody knows it.
So yeah, you feel like part of the group.
It's fun.
So yeah, a lot of fun.
All right, guys, we have a few more for you.
Lindsay, what's the next one?
Okay.
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Okay, Cotton Eye Joe.
Now this kind of has a country twang to it, doesn't it?
Yeah, that feels very country.
Cotton Eye Joe, 1995 by Rednecks.
I have to look up all these names, you know, because these are...
Like like other than the village people.
I guess I didn't really know the names of most of the artists.
So yeah, rednecks.
Yeah, rednecks.
Okay.
And then the next one, Michelle, I don't know if I know this one as much.
What's that one?
The next one.
Oh, the Cupid shuffle.
That was 2007.
So that was a little bit later, like, you know, after high school for both of us.
So yeah, maybe, maybe it kind of got a little bit lost to us.
But I do remember doing it like maybe at other parties and things like that.
If that came up now, I would have no idea how to do it.
And then you feel silly if you if everyone knows the line dance.
And then you just kind of they're watching and joining and stepping and yeah.
It's bad.
It's bad.
And then the chicken dance.
This one's the most annoying, probably.
The chicken dance.
Yeah.
1992 by the Emeralds.
So guys, go to YouTube, type those in.
We've given you a lot of examples of what exactly we're talking about.
But we know that in your culture, there's probably your own dances.
Of course.
Right.
But this is the stuff of connection.
OK, so that's the thing to remember.
Right.
And let us know about these songs.
You know, do you do you know these ones?
Are they also popular?
Maybe did the same dance?
I don't know.
But, you know, why is it important, Lindsay?
Why is it important to know these things?
Even as silly as it sounds, why is it important?
Thank you so much.
And so there's something here we can tune into when we're being strategic about building relationships and have a laugh with someone, to know it, to be able to share it and have comments about it after, whether it's on site at the event or after in a business context.
It's just important for building the relationship, right, Michelle?
And that's what it comes down to.
Yeah, absolutely.
And yeah, part of the group, knowing, you know, how to kind of join in.
So definitely listen to these.
It also makes me think of like.
Sometimes there are jokes like with these dances, like or other songs, like you know, do you ever hear?
Like when somebody shouts out like Freebird at a concert.
No, actually, I don't.
I never go to concerts.
Oh, no, it's always, like, this big joke because the song Free Bird is, like, a very long song.
And I don't know why.
It's a joke, but every once in a while, like somebody at a concert, like when they're waiting for the next song, they'll go like Free Bird.
And I think it's just because it's, like, a long song.
I'm not sure where the joke came from.
But, like, you know, it just...
Knowing about certain things, knowing about the line dances, knowing about things in the culture, like with the TV episode is super important guys, even for the business world.
So, I mean, the takeaway for today is to learn these things.
I mean, we gave you key questions today that you can ask other people.
Did you go to – did you do the –
Cupid Shuffle at dances when you were a kid.
Did you do right?
So we also just a quick note, you know, if it's just some of them are like, like most of the, the ones like did you do the Macarena, the YMCA, the Chacha Slide, but like Cotton Eye Joe, that's just, you would have to say like did you do the dance to Cotton Eye Joe?
Yeah.
Right, Lindsay?
Okay, that's a good point.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Some of them are just titled with the.
Right.
And some of them.
You have to add a little language around the beginning and the end guys, to make it work.
But you guys are ready for this kind of thing.
The point is bring up the topic.
Bring up the topic.
Don't shy away from these cultural pieces.
Because this is what makes people reflect on their past and feel more connected to you as a result.
And this is the way to build that connection.
You could never do with just textbook phrases from your textbook, from your class.
Okay.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
So yeah, this is good for business too, guys, right?
Even though we're talking about dancing, business, we talk about life, right?
This is life.
Life is business?
Business is life, Michelle.
That's what it comes down to.
So you can definitely identify with this network with people use this in the business world as well.
And remember guys, we have this amazing web class coming up with Jessica and Aubrey, which is three steps to fearless phone calls in English.
And Lindsay, how do they sign up?
Guys, go and sign up right now.
Don't miss this. allearsenglish.com slash phone.
P-H-O-N-E.
And we'll see you guys there at the end of July.
So excited for that.
All right.
Very good, Michelle.
All right.
Bye, Lindsay.
Have a good one.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
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