Most children love to dance.
Dancing is something that can make any situation more uplifting, especially when you’re with dozens of your peers. This principal in China teaches his students a popular dance that originated in Australia back in the early ’90s.
As this video shows, they really know how to break it down!
These students learn to shuffle as a huge group with their principal leading the way.
Shuffle dancing is dubbed the “Melbourne Shuffle” because of its origins in the underground rave scene in Melbourne, Australia. The dance involves shuffling your feet inward and outward while simultaneously moving your arms up and down or side to side.
After principal Zhang Pengfei learned the shuffle dance, he decided to teach his students at Xi Guan Primary School the slick moves.
The school is located in China’s Shanxi province, where the principal recorded this video of his students doing the dance and went viral.
For being such young kids, their timing is absolutely impeccable!
Principal Pengfei and two other teachers lead the way, as the sea of kids behind them follows their every move. The whole group shuffles their feer with style and grace, staying right on time with one another.
The principal also has a microphone in his hand, which makes it much easier to give the students commands and keep them on cue.
He shouts out directions loud enough for everyone to hear, with all the kids shouting the words back at him.
The principal wanted the students to get more exercise rather than being on their phones and computers.
With a school of 700 students, the principal had to find a way to get them all to exercise. What better way than learning a super awesome dance together? Big points for the principal for thinking outside the box!
“Our playground wouldn’t fit more than 700 students running, or playing sports which requires a lot of space,” Principal Pengfe told South China News.
He went on to say:
“If I introduced the shuffle dance to our school, I knew the students would definitely love it.”
They shuffle their feet in and out, pumping their arms and even spinning in circles all while maintaining perfectly in sync with each other. At one point, the teachers and students hop backward with their hands on their thighs with amazing precision.
They don’t skip a beat the entire time, and the kids clearly love the dance they’ve learned.
You can just sense the happiness coming from the group of kids. This is exactly the type of activities kids need to grow, learn teamwork and other important social skills.
Unfortunately, the pandemic at hand has made scenarios like this one nearly impossible for the time being.
Which is why we need to look back on videos like this one for hope that eventually we’ll be able to dance in groups again. The video of these students doing the Melbourne Shuffle has reached people all around the world.
The principal teaching his students to shuffle dance has been viewed over 4.6 million times, with 69,000 people liking it.
Many people cracked hilarious jokes, while others were just impressed by the kids’ phenomenal skills.
This is such a touching video to watch—good teachers going out of their way to connect with their students always pulls on the heartstrings. It’s also surprising that all of the students were able to do the shuffle dance so well! It’s definitely worth a watch.
To see the principal doing the Melbourne Shuffle with his students, just watch the video below!
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