I almost hate to admit to how many times I’ve watched the video I’m about to share with you.

It’s a music video for a song by the Saudi Arabian (I think?) music group “Miami Band”.

It’s dated. And it’s goofy. And it’s decidedly not western. Which contributes to a certain surrealism for westerners watching it.

But the more I watch this video, the higher my estimation of its genius gets.

Some of my favourite things in this video:

• The seemingly random chorus of tiny children in Arab Thawbs, which, on later reflection, is one of the less random things in the video.
• The dabke dancers breaking into explicit digging motions.
• The juxtaposition of NeyAnban (Bedouin bagpipes) with scottish bagpipes.
• How deadpan everyone is. Like, “Just passing through with my camel, scuse me”.
• The disco shoving match. Obviously.
• The lead singer’s delightfully nerdy bow-legged stride style dancing. And his narrow dodging of the Saudi dancers.

But mostly, I just watch this video and I think happily about how we’re all connected, all our cultures, all the planet’s peoples, through music and dance.

Which is cheesy. I know.

But also, how fun would it be to put together a whole dance show that tried to hit these themes and leave the audience with that same feeling of connectedness?

Aiwa, aiwa.