Because of a vocal performance class that I audited at SCAD, I sometimes notice the way that people stand or walk. The class was taught by renowned Prof. Vivian Majkowski and though I audited it, I felt like I barely passed. Two days a week at 8 AM I sat on the floor of one of the upstairs classrooms in Seitz Hall, trying to keep up with undergrad performance majors. (I took the class so that I'd be better at teaching voice to my public speaking students.)
Among the many things that I remember from the class, Vivian said that everyone has a different inner-tempo-rhythm. We move and talk at different rates, basically, and that rate is innate or hardwired.
Around the same time that I took Vivian's class I showed my students a video about the importance of moving. I was always encouraging them to exercise in order to manage their pre-speech jitters. The speaker in the video (which sadly I can't find) harked back to the intrinsic human gait of loping. Humans loped on the savannah long before they were worried about public speaking. I imagine that they sped up if being chased, but loping was their way of getting around, I guess, from one plain to another.
I've been noticing these factors in my friend Todd. In social situations he lopes. I guess that to lope you have to have longish legs, which he does. Todd will check a place out with a bounding walk, then return with a beer and a report. When I go to talk to someone new he might make a loping circumference of the room and land to check out my conversation. He's a loper.
In terms of speaking rate, Todd has has some Southern slowness (he's from Savannah, the city) but gets a number of thoughts in to one speaking turn. I like that. You know what Todd is up to and what he's thinking.
I speak fast and walk fast. It's good to slow down and be in the moment. It's good to notice people who lope.
