Brazilian Dance Off

This is the story of how I got into a dance off with Brazilian street kids.

I love dancing. I am by no means great at it, but what I lack in talent, I make up for in what the Spanish call “fuego”. So much in fact, the fire Marshall won’t let me dance anymore. Not after what I did to the roof of that club.

The last time I was in Brazil, I spent a day in the city of Manaus with my medical team. We went to check out the opera house and in front of it were a group of Brazilian teenagers dancing. I made a crack about “Look, it’s Step Up 3: Brazil”, or some nonsense as I often do, and they must of seen me because they started calling us out.

Now, we all know the rules of taking it to the streets.

1. If someone calls you out, you have to step up. It’s a matter of honor
2. If you get served (God forbid), you got to serve them back.

They called us out so, representing my team, I stepped up. Fortunately, I had already learned to salsa dance on the streets of Brazil, so I had some experience in this environment. 

So I go up to this group of renegades and call out their boy (literally. he was 12). He does his moves. They hoot. They holler. I got served.

Everyone waited to see what I would do. I went up to one of the kids with headphones on, put one of his ear buds in mine to get a beat, then I BUSTED OUT MICHAEL JACKSON MOVES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. 

The kids were FLOORED. Not because the moves were particularly good, rather I think it was just the last thing they expected this white American to do. Clearly these uneducated kids don’t know of our lack of shame. They couldn’t believe it. 

To my team’s amazement and laughter, this Brazilian kid (the one in the yellow shirt) and I went back and forth a couple times to the gasps and cheers of the crowd until--- after one particularly impassioned set I did, the kid threw his hands up in the air and walked away. 

He got served.

I couldn’t believe what just happened. I was in shock and quite confused. So I taunted him (as I often do to children) and immediately convinced my team to leave before I was found out that I’m not that good a dancer. Yet somehow I won the dance off against this dance crew of teenagers. The only time I’ve EVER clearly won a dance off and it was on the streets of Brazil. We all laughed the whole way home. 

Everything in this story is 100% true….. except for the part about the fire Marshall.