(playful music)
-: Hi family and friends.
I wanted to introduce to you a few friends of mine.
This is Gerald, Gerald the Giraffe.
And this is Sam, Sam the Snake.
Sometimes, when somebody asks Gerald
to do something in front of the camera,
or in front of his friends, he gets kind of scared.
One of those things that sometimes he has to do
in front of the camera is dance!
And he does not think that he can dance.
Let's see if Gerald can dance.
"Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae.
(playful music)
Gerald was a tall giraffe whose neck was long and slim.
But his knees were awfully crooked,
and his legs were rather thin.
He was very good at standing still
and munching shoots off trees.
But when he tried to run around,
he buckled at the knees, kerplunk.
Now every year in Africa, they hold the Jungle Dance,
where every single animal turns up to skip and prance.
Jungle days!
And this year, when the day arrived,
poor Gerald felt so sad,
because when it came to dancing,
he was really very bad.
The warthogs started waltzing,
and the rhinos rock and rolled.
The lions danced a tango
that was elegant and bold.
Look at those rhinos.
Do you see the lions doing the tango?
Oh wait 'til you see these chimps.
The chimps all did a cha-cha with a very Latin feel,
and eight baboons then teamed up
for a splendid Scottish reel.
Look at them doing that Scottish dance.
Gerald swallowed bravely as he walked toward the floor,
but the lions saw him coming and they soon began to roar.
"Hey, look at clumsy Gerald," the animals all sneered.
"Giraffes can't dance, you silly fool!
"Oh Gerald, you are so weird."
Oh no.
Those animals are not being very kind to Gerald.
They're not being good friends, are they?
Let's see what happens next.
Gerald simply froze up.
He was rooted to the spot.
Look at him, he's frozen.
"They're right," he thought.
"I'm useless, oh, I feel like such a clot."
Oh, poor Gerald.
So he crept off from the dance floor,
and he started walking home.
He'd never felt so sad before,
so sad and so alone.
Sometimes when friends say not-very-nice things to us,
it makes us feel sad.
And sometimes we just wanna be alone when we're sad.
Then he found a little clearing,
and he looked up at the sky.
"The moon can be so beautiful," he whispered with a sigh.
"Excuse me," (blows lips) coughed a cricket,
who'd seen Gerald earlier on,
"but sometimes when you're different,
"you just need a different song,"
chirped the cricket to Gerald.
"Listen to the swaying grass and listen to the trees.
"To me the sweetest music is those branches in the breeze.
"So imagine that the lovely moon is playing just for you.
"Everything makes music, if you really want it to."
With that, the cricket smiled and picked up his violin.
Then Gerald felt his body do the most amazing thing.
His hooves had started shuffling,
making circles on the ground.
His neck was gently swaying
and his tail was swishing around.
What is Gerald doing?
Ha, Gerald, whoa!
He threw his legs out sideways and he swung them everywhere.
Then he did a backwards somersault
and leapt up into the air.
Gerald felt so wonderful, his mouth was open wide.
"I'm dancing, yes I'm dancing!
"I'm dancing," Gerald cried.
Then, one by one, each animal
who'd been there at the dance when Gerald arrived,
they boogied on and watched him, quite entranced.
They shouted, "It's a miracle!
"We must be in a dream.
"Gerald's the best dancer that we've ever seen.
"How did you learn to dance like that?
"Please Gerald, tell us how."
But Gerald simply twirled around
and finished with a bow.
Then he raised his head
and looked up at the moon and stars above.
"We all can dance," he said,
"when we find music that we love."
Go Gerald!
Look at it, he found his dance moves.
He found confidence.
He was excited to dance in front of his friends.
He just had another friend give him a little pep talk.
That's sometimes how we can help ourselves
not be sad anymore, is find a nice friend
that can give us a pep talk.
A pep talk, or kind words.
Sometimes it might be, "You can do it!"
I hope that you all find happiness in dancing,
just like Gerald did.
(playful music)