Body Language of the Prance Gait
Cue: Prance Gait (the).
Synonym(s): Prancing, Walking On Air, Walking With A Bounce In The Step, Bound In The Gait.
Description: A playful gait which is peppered with unnecessary leaps and bounces.
In One Sentence: The prance gait signals a high degree of femininity due to happiness and health.
How To Use it: Children can use the prance for best effect to show their good spirits. Women are also permitted by our culture to prance and when men prance, they can use it for comedic effect.
A more muted prance can work in both woman and men, however, and is useful in showing others your good health and good spirits. Rather than an exaggerated prance, a mute prance is simply a youthful gait which produces a slight leap in the steps as if floating on air.
Use the prance in any context in which health and virility will be seen as a positive trait. In dating, a bound in the step will show your partner that you have good character and good genetics. This is especially useful to women whom can show off their youth, and hence fertility, with a bound in their step.
Context: a) General b) Dating.
Verbal Translation: “I’m so happy and healthy and want everyone to notice. When I walk, I like to expend more energy than is practical or necessary.”
Variant: A woman may use the parade style of walking which exaggerates the motion of the hips, forcing them to cant from side-to-side. A playful prance intermixed with a parade style of walking shows a person in good spirit who has good childbearing hips. See Gait or Walking Styles.
Cue In Action: a) The girls and boys happily pranced around the playground while the parents ambled after them – barely keeping up. a) He just won the lottery and you could tell. His head was held high, it was as if he was walking on the clouds with a confident stride, buoyant, and youthful. b) Her youth was apparent. When she walked, she had a noticeable bound in her step indicating her health, vigor and good spirit. She advertised her sexuality with her prance.
Meaning and/or Motivation: The prance indicates good spirit and confidence usually associated with youth and thus health.
A bound in the gait indicates a persons ability and desire to fight the effects of gravity. When people win, they celebrate by thrusting their arms up in the air to draw attention to themselves. The same is true about our gait. It is often found in adults who feel that they have control over their lives and those who have enjoyed successes.
Conversely, those who lack confidence or who are depressed will hang their shoulders and saunter about instead. The prance is a type of gait that advertises to the world that a person is happy and content is worthy of our association.
The prancing gait also indicates the virility of a person when carried by those of sexual maturity. Prancing is a sign that they make a good sexual partner partially due to their optimism and good spirit, but also their youthfulness and health. This makes the prance a strong indicator of physical and mental fitness.
Cue Cluster: Watch for head held high with chin up, smiling face and a smooth stride with straight back.
Body Language Category: Amplifier, Confident body language, Childlike playfulness, Enthusiasm (nonverbal), Excited body language, Gravity defying body language, Happiness, High confidence body language, Up nonverbals.
Resources:
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