I discovered this video on my Facebook newsfeed and neglected to read the caption “Youngest Choreographer” before I clicked play.

At first I watched a little boy as he seems to follow and emulate the adult dancers around him.

However, soon I realized after stumbles and expressive gestures, that the dancers were in fact following the little boy’s movements!

The dancers are constantly looking towards the little boy for direction, and would add mature isolation technique and form to the child’s moves. All the while, careful in their movements, to be playful and lighthearted, not to distract or scare the boy from continuing his dance.

Why was I quick to assume that the child was following the adults?

Rarely do we see this type of physical interaction between innocence and maturity. However it certainly exists. The Readings from the potato board are more of an explicit parallel to the video. The Potato Board, made up of corporate adults, are frequently checking and revising economic decisions based on the movements of the younger generation. It is a fragile dance to somehow sustain interest from an attention-deficient generation, without scaring them away with eager persistence.

In light of the Potato Board example, the most relevant metaphor for this video may be from an economic standpoint. From personal knowledge, I know that millions of dollars are spent annually on researching trends in millennials and frequently adapting marketing strategies to their ever-shifting interests.

This video can both challenge and support Stanley Hall’s theory of adolescence, the idea that adolescence parallel’s human race’s growth and evolution. We can see the puppetry between infantry and adulthood. Yet, in the video infantry guides adulthood. Which could be argued as cause and effect of growth, while an unrealistic method of individual nurturing.

My idea of adolescence and healthy upbringing stems from the mature technique added to the boy’s innocent expression. This way the older generations continue to learn from the younger generations, and foster wisdom and experience to push them to become a more creative and innovative generation.