After reading this great little piece over at louder than swahili, I couldn’t resist posting this clip of me in a spontaneous dance-off at a Luhya wedding in Nairobi in December. We were all dancing in a group, then all of a sudden this guy came up to me and the crowd parted, and it was on.

I’ve always thought I could boogie when I needed to — I even got dubbed “Lil’ Turbo” as a four year-old by a band of roving breakdancers who stopped by hippie San Francisco preschool Rocky Mountain in 1985. But this clip definitively proves I am less of a dancer in real life than I am in my head.

I must note, before you view this, that I do not normally dress like an intern for a Republican senator, and the goofy expression is just my attempt to not reveal that a part of me was taking the dance-off a little too seriously.

By the way, first thing I thought when the crowd separated was, uh-oh, it’s a roda. As in, a capoeira roda.  (Turn your computer’s volume down for this, the audio is terrible.)

*Oh, what’s that you say? Clip doesn’t work? Enjoy the still and use your imagination :-).

Update: fixed the link!