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 Theresa May was filmed awkwardly dancing during a school visit in Cape Town on the first day of her trade trip to Africa. 
 
 Clad in a bright red blazer the UK leader shuffled along, shifting her feet forward and swaying her hands near her hips as a choir of schoolchildren sang. 
 
 Mrs May smiled broadly as she shuffled from side-to-side at the ID Mkize School in Cape Town. 
 
 Speaking to pupils afterwards, she said: "Can I thank all those young people who were involved in the performances outside who welcomed me." 
 
 She also joined in a second dance during her visit as she embarked on her latest Africa trip, which began on Tuesday. 
 
 The Prime Minister's rhythmic moves received a lot of attention on social media, with many saying she was "dad dancing". 
 
 One person wrote: “I’m watching this through my fingers #daddancing.” 
 
 Another said: “I thought I had left feet.” 
 
 Mrs May was also likened to a robot, with a GIF of Futurama character Bender, a metallic robot, dancing being shared online in response to her moves. 
 
 One questioned why it mattered how well she danced and wrote: “How is this important? She’s not auditioning for Strictly.” 
 
 The school trip was used to announce more places on a scholarship, helping those with the desire come to the UK for university. 
 
 In an assembly, the PM said: "What I see before me in this hall today is the future of South Africa." 
 
 "I'd like to think that some of you, when you get older, if you're thinking of going to university that you might think of coming to one of our great universities in the UK. ||||| British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is on a visit to SA, showed off her dance moves in Cape Town on Tuesday. 
 
 Learners at a Gugulethu high school were treated to a medley of moves, one of which was swaying side-to-side. 
 
 Dance experts, including a Strictly Come Dancing judge, have some tips for improvement. 
 
 British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is on a visit to South Africa, got into the groove at a Gugulethu high school on Tuesday. 
 
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 Also from Business Insider South Africa: ||||| The prime minister – like so many others in public life – has been forced to dance, this time in front of schoolchildren on a trip to Africa 
 
 Name: Dancefloor diplomacy. 
 
 Age: Shrouded in the mists of embarrassment. 
 
 Appearance: Unspeakable. Not, alas, unseeable. 
 
 This sounds bad. It’s worse. 
 
 What is it? It’s that thing where public figures – politicians mostly, sometimes the royals – have to dance. In public. 
 
 Oh God. That is worse. It’s worse even than that. This time it was Theresa May. 
 
 Oh, that poor woman. I know. A group of Cape Town schoolchildren welcomed her on the first day of her trade trip to Africa and … 
 
 Oh, that poor woman. Yes. She found it incumbent upon her to – well, I was going to say move to the rhythm, but she didn’t, so I can’t. 
 
 Bust out some moves? It was more like … do an impression of a wobbly fridge. 
 
 In front of the world’s press? Yeah. 
 
 Was it worse than seeing Prince Charles spasm to music? It was worse than seeing David Cameron at a music festival. I mean, the woman can’t even curtsy, for heaven’s sake. 
 
 Was it worse than seeing Victoria Aitken rap? No. There are limits. 
 
 Honestly, it’s so unfair – when did politicians start having to be all things to all people instead of just being allowed to run the country? When they started being televised, I guess. Ask Richard Nixon. 
 
 Does it have a nickname yet, this dance? Of course. And, of course, it’s the Maybot. Whose beat-detecting circuits were obviously fried. 
 
 Look, I have no love for May, nor indeed most politicians, but we really should stop doing this. You don’t need to be able to dance to be competent in a governmental role, do you? No. Not that she is competent in her senior governmental role. 
 
 Agreed, but irrelevant. You wouldn’t laugh at other physical incapacities, would you? No. 
 
 Ergo, we shouldn’t do it here. But … but … 
 
 Yes? But it’s the only thing we’ve got. We can’t haul them up before the beak every time they asset-strip the country, plunge another family into poverty or pander to another racist demographic in a way that is going to damage the nation for decades to come. We can only point and laugh at their basic inability to master common human skills. See also: knowing the price of a pint of milk. 
 
 So you’re saying that mocking the dance-afflicted in this context is a way of highlighting their inhumanity, as well as their distance from and indifference to normal people’s experience? Yes. Sure. 
 
 So what appears to be childish spite is actually a sophisticated, legitimate expression of sociopolitical discontent? Absolutely. 
 
 Hahahahahaha! Look at the Maybot malfunctioning! She wobbles like a fridge! And is the country’s most dangerously inept PM in a crisis! Hahahahahahaha! 
 
 Do say: “Remember the Obamas dancing together at their two inaugural balls, though?” 
 
 Don’t say: “They were a family of goddamn unicorns. We shall not see their like again.” ||||| She's no Obama, that's for sure 
 
 Is Theresa May the worst dancer in the world of politics? 
 
 Yes. Theresa May is clearly the world’s worst dancing politician. That video of the Prime Minister dancing with South African children in Cape Town, which went viral today, and which made her look like your ironing board strutting its way into your hallway, ready for action, is bizarre, undeniable proof of this. Yet Theresa, known in some circles at The Maybot, is not the first politician to dance like a robot from 1984. Recent history is littered with instance of these serious people doing silly things, in full view of cameras and people with internet connections. 
 
 The late Boris Yeltsin was noted for being Russia’s first democratically elected President, yes, but was also widely regarded as the greatest politician of all time when it came to busting a move. In 2007, when he died, The Guardian asked, “Was Boris Yeltsin the best dancing politician ever?” and, readers, concluded: “While his countrymen often cringed at Yeltsin’s dancing-bear antics, they endeared him to much of the rest of the world.” There is so much Theresa could have learned from Mr. Yeltsin throwing shapes at a rally in Russia: loosen up, clap, look like you’re actually having a good time. Instead, she looked like she trying to put on her socks after a particularly strenuous work-out. 
 
 If Yeltsin has any natural successors, they’re Canadian dreamboat Justin Trudeau – who brought a smile to the world’s face when he danced to Bhangra in 2015, and again in 2018, because the man just can’t get enough – and Britain’s entertainingly named Ed Balls, who busted out ‘Gangnam Style’ on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016. At the time, these were treated as embarrassing follies, but, in comparison to the Maybot’s rusty, badly programmed jives, look like legendary, once-lost deleted scenes from Saturday Night Fever. They’re dancing men, and they just can’t lose. 
 
 Probably the coolest politician of all time, Barack Obama was celebrated for this dance moves and, in this regard, his crowning glory came when he shimmied with BB King and Mick Jagger at the White House, crooning ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ with surprising aplomb. Hilary Clinton failed in her bid to become his Presidential successor, but she had a bloody good old boogie during a trip to South Africa in 2012. Donald Trump looked shit when he bopped from side to side in Saudia Arabia, but at least he wasn’t really trying. Theresa appeared to put some effort in, which is what makes the whole sorry episode so embarrassing. 
 
 It appears someone attempted to programme some humanity into the Maybot, but there was a glitch in the Matrix. In her approximation of humanity, Theresa revealed her true robotic nature. Like YouTube phenomenon Poppy speaking in the manner of a broken algorithm, or the Terminator’s blazing red eye, it’s the combination of normality and weirdness that makes it so hard to resist the video of the Prime Minister whirring into action. In a couple of years, when the UK is merely dust and rubble, the Maybot will continue to clank and jive, its battery ebbing away, that golden Strictly slot firmly in its sights. ||||| Published on Aug 28, 2018 
 
 Theresa May had a go at dancefloor diplomacy on the opening day of her Africa trade trip. The prime minister moved from side to side and bobbed up and down as she was greeted by pupils singing and dancing at the ID Mkize secondary school in Cape Town. 
 
 During her trip she will meet the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, on Tuesday, before heading to Nigeria and Kenya to meet their respective presidents, Muhammadu Buhari and Uhuru Kenyatta 
 
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– British Prime Minister Theresa May is on a tour of Africa, and Tuesday found her dancing with a group of schoolchildren in Cape Town. See video here, or a different version here. What dance was she doing? It's tough to say, but the Evening Standard christens it the "Maybot." For a kind assessment, start with Business Insider, which quotes two South African dance experts who give May an 8 out of 10 for her moves. After that, the assessments fall off a cliff. Three samples: NME: "Turns out Theresa May dances like your ironing board strutting its way into your hallway, ready for action" The Guardian: "Bust out some moves? It was more like … do an impression of a wobbly fridge." Politico: "Theresa May dances in exactly the way you would expect Theresa May to dance: like a baby robot giraffe" And on and on. Stig Abell, editor of the Times Literary Supplement in the UK, took a more cautious approach in a tweet: "Theresa May dancing is me dancing unwillingly at parties so I refuse to criticise her."