Little girl kicks off dance party on subway platform

A little girl started a dance party on the platform waiting for the NYC subway and other passengers followed suit. Kids once again teach us that impromptu dance parties are the best way to ignite and share joy.

It’s good to know that the cares of the world can be shaken off, even by New Yorkers waiting for the L train, when a little child is there to spontaneously lead them in a crazy dance to a busker playing the banjo on the platform.

There is also much to be said for the parent who lets a child express spontaneous joy, rather than hauling him or her away from the moment.

I once was a young child waiting for the L train, a long, long time ago with my father, as other miserable grown-ups padded past without so much as a nod or a smile.

There weren’t any buskers playing happy tune when I was there, but I do remember how dreary and oppressive the subway always was. “Don’t make eye contact,” was the instruction I always got as a child living in New York City.

I can’t imagine my father or mother letting me cut loose like this little girl and sitting here, all the decades later, I admit I am a wee bit jealous of this child’s ability to emit light in darkness.

It can sometimes take an incredibly light spirit to lift the funk from the shoulders of adults, enthusing them to get up and dance too, yet apparently one little girl managed it and the video of the moment has gone viral.

The unidentified young girl in a pink coat took it upon herself to start a dance party at the Bedford Avenue station in Brooklyn to a cover of "Me and My Uncle" by the Grateful Dead, according to comments and the video description posted on YouTube.

“I love how it takes a child to remind everyone that it's okay to just spontaneously dance. Bravo little girl! Hopefully you will keep this spontaneity as society slowly chips away at you,” one commentator posted in the video’s comments section.

It reminds me of the old 80s television show “Perfect Strangers” and how the two cousins did “Dance of Joy” whenever something good happened. 

Taking to YouTube, you can find a lot more of these wonderful impromptu, inter-generational dance parties.

If you’re not in a subway in New York, you might want to catch a Detroit Pistons game just for the Dance Cam action. During a November 2013 home game versus the New York Knicks, an impromptu dance battle erupted between an amazing young boy up in the stands and an equally talented seating usher.

The battle is caught on dueling dance cameras and shown live on the Jumbotron. This isn’t just about a kid who can dance. It’s all about a kid and an adult sharing a moment of pure, joy with a mass audience that neither really seems to take into account.

This is apparently a universal talent kids have, since another great spontaneous dance was captured on video in Uganda back in January of this year. The music is "Sytia Loss (featuring Eddy Kenzo)" by Toofan according to the YouTube description on the video.

However, in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, it is also the elderly that have the power to dance their way into your hear, as shown in a video when a dad stops with his child in a stroller to engage an elderly Greek woman in a dance to a street busker’s tune during the French Quarter Festival in 2012.

Yet my favorite dance of joy comes from Kelly Noyes, when she won the gold in the Special Olympics 440 race in Elon, NC in 2012 and then spontaneously burst into a joyful victory dance! 

There was no music but that which she felt in her heart. It went on so long that we hear her mother laughing as she tries to coax her to at least get off the track so the next race can begin.

Kelly didn’t get off the track. Instead she got everyone else on track for a smile with her ability to share her joy.

Each of the videos is a great fix for the pre-holiday funk that can come as we try hard to prepare to be festive. They are all reminders that the joy is already here. All we have to do is let it out.