October 13, 2006

Marriott's "More Room to Move" Dance Promotion

On Adrants, I came across a post about an online promotion for Marriott Spring Hills Suites with the dance-inspired name "More Room to Move." Adrants characterizes the quality of the dancing as Seinfeldian in tribute to Elaine's awkward dance moves. But while corny, Marriott's dance game is entertaining - at least for a minute or two - and captures the notion of more spacious suites.

To play the game, you choose a dancer, and then click a button to activate each dance move as the proceeding dance move is about to end.

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June 26, 2006

Watch Avatars Dancing in SecondLife

On June 9th, I wrote a post, "Dancing in the Second Life Virtual World." In this post, I wrote about Rik Panganiban's thoughts about the limitations of avatar dancing in such virtual environments. He followed-up with a comment where he provided a link to a few video clips that show you exactly what it looks like to dance in SL - I encourage you to watch these clips.

Even though these animated dance videos are rudimentary at this point, I think that SL and other virtual worlds should be taken seriously by dancers. As Phoenix Psaltery, who also posted a comment to my post about dancing in SL, wrote:

Yes, Second Life has shortcomings when it comes to things like dance and other activities that use a lot of personal expression, but please understand that SL is really in its infancy as far as what will someday be possible. It's come a long way in just three years; imagine what it will be like in three more, or ten more.

Already SL is a real cash economy where users are buying products with the virtual world's Linden Dollars that can be exchange for real money. In addition, a post in B2Day blog links to story about how Amazon is exploring how to link the SL virtual world to its web services so that physical products can be sold from within SecondLife.

Imagine visiting a dance clothing boutique in SL, trying on shoes and clothing and then purchasing the real merchandise from within this store? Or watching a SL-based performance by a dance company and being able to purchase video clips of the "real world" performance by the same group.

There are many possibilities and as the ability to control dancing avatars continues to improve in this parallel universe, many new doors will be opened for dancers.

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June 9, 2006

Dancing in the Second Life Virtual World

I keep meaning to experiment with the Second Life virtual world.

Now with the growth in dancing in this alternative reality, I have more of an incentive to make an avatar for myself and start wondering around and going to clubs, get-togethers and, even, dance studio. This notice caught my attention:

This past Tuesday, the Takeshi's Dance Studio in Second Life held an event to teach people how to dance. Plus, they will soon be building a theater and they need dancers.

Since I haven't used Second Life, I only have a vague idea what it means to dance in SL. My guess is that users who went to Takeshi's Dance Studio learned how to write scripts so that their avatars could automatically perform a series of pre-programmed moves. I'm going to follow-up with Takeshi's Dance Studio to find out more.

In the meantime, I came across some interesting stories and pictures that offer a glimpse of the type of dancing that is now taking place in SL:

- Here are some pictures on Flickr that show examples of Second Life dancing:

- In Linden Lifestyles (Linden is the creator of Second Life), there is an article, "Concert Tips and Etiquette," that explains how to participate in SL music concerts - how, for instance, to listen to musicians and not be bothered by extraneous sounds. If you scroll down this article, you'll find a section that explains the concept of dance animators and dance balls. If an avatar couple steps on a dance ball and then activates the dance animator, their avatars will then be taken through a pre-determined series of dance steps. Here's a screen shot of a dance floor in an SL nightclub:

- Dancing doesn't just take place in virtual clubs. Events on private islands also feature music and dancing. Earlier this year, Creative Commons hosted a party. There are more pictures available with the write-up about this event:

- In "Get That Out of Your Mouth #24 - The Show Must Go Online," Chris Dahlen describes the experience of listening to music in Second Life, how indie bands take virtual tours and make money, and the limitations of gestures and dance in this virtual world:

Players also can't control their avatars with any spontaneity or nuance; if you want to dance at a show, you can trigger an animation that runs your avatar through the steps, but you can't personally step in to make the arm rest on your partner's back just so. The same problem applies for performers. If you look closely at Few as he's playing guitar, you'll see that he can't strum or move his hand on the fretboard, and his face is trapped in a stiff mask, like a dummy in a vintage Disney World ride. And while you can add more animations and poses to an avatar, if you have the time and you're handy with 3-D modeling software, you can't make the spur-of-the-moment gestures that even stiff indie rockers need to liven up their acts.

- And Rik Riel (his SL name) in his "Dancing with myself... with other people " post, says that he goes to a lot of SL events and music gigs. He describes how dancing works:

In Second Life, you are given a small set of pre-defined dance animations that you can trigger from your keyboard. It's easy to pick up other animations at parties or from friends. You can easily perform everything from a waltz to b-boying to country two-step (not to mention more, uh, provocative dancing).

But he's not really sold on this virtual dancing:

A real basic question is Why would you do this? Virtual dancing provides none of the perks of real world dancing, either the joy of movement, the physical response to music you are digging, the pleasure in touching another person, or the pride of executing a difficult move. There's no learning curve, no physical exertion, no effort to anything, except maybe the effort involved in designing your own custom animations.

I've been dancing my whole life, from all of the terrible 80's trends (smurf, running man, pac man, etc.) to popping and locking, salsa, tap, and now lindy hop. There are few other moments when I am happier than when I am dancing. There is nothing to compare to sharing great music with someone you care for swaying in your arms. I love dancing so much, I help administer the largest lindy hop community website on the net, Yehoodi.com.

Rik Riel adds this picture from Flickr to reinforce his point:

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March 27, 2006

The Virtual Bodyjam Dance Game

Take the Virtual Bodyjam dance workout game for a spin. This Flash game, based on the Les Mills dance workout, lets you choose and cloth your dancing avatar and then you're ready to replicate your instructor's moves. The game, which you can play alone or in challenge mode, is a piece of cake, but I always enjoy seeing how dance is brought to the web.

Posted by Doug Fox at 12:45 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 6, 2005

Pepsi Samba Online Dance Competition

Pepsi in Australia is promoting its tropical cola drink Pepsi Samba via an online dance competition where participants upload their short dance videos to win cash and other prizes. On the site you can vote for the best and worst videos of the day, upload your own clips, play a dance game and download wallpaper and screensavers. Plus, you can download ringtones and wallpaper for your cell phone.

What I like about this site is the strong focus on interactivity and user involvement. Everything is designed to encourage people to participate. I think that fostering this type of interaction is the best way to brand a product online. Plus, if you feature a bottle of Pepsi Samba in your dance video, you can win even more cash.

Posted by Doug Fox at 4:26 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 6, 2005

Bust A Move with Ellen Degeneres

American Express features Ellen Degeneres in a dancing-themed TV commercial and interactive Flash animation.

The Ellen Degeneres Dance Maker let's you combine your choice of dance moves into your own choreographed dance composition - all the dance moves feature Degeneres.

(By the way, when you reach the Dance Maker page, you may have to click on an arrow that you'll see to the left of Ellen's head on the left side of the page. Then, click on the rotating crystal ball to start the Dance Maker).

To get started, you drag your choice of dance moves to the bottom row and click on the single song to slect an audio track. Then, click "Bust a Move" and you're ready to watch your personalized dance piece. If you think you've created a masterpiece, you can submit your dance combination to Ellen.

You can also watch the accompanying American Express dance commercial also featuring Ellen Degeneres. The commercial closes with Degeneres saying, "I like dancing to my own tune." I like the tie-in with the overall theme of this American Express promotion. You get to decide which dance moves to add to your final dance piece just like you get to decide how to use your AmEx card.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:37 AM - Permalink | Comments (0)

September 29, 2005

Para Para Dance Craze Hits US

A new dance craze may be coming to US inspired by a popular Japanese arcade game, Para Para Paradise. According to article in this morning's New York Daily News, the Para Para moves, similar to dance games like Dance Dance Revolution but not very demanding, share similarities to past dance fads but offer more variety then the Macarena. The Anime Fusion Tour is now performing the Para Para dance throughout US. Read article for diagram of dance or visit Anime Fusion Tour site to download colorful PDF file of dance moves.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:31 AM - Permalink | Comments (0)

September 28, 2005

Kick Ass Kung-Fu Embodied Gaming Experience

I just came across the website for the Kick Ass Kung-Fu immersive game experience. This large-scale real-life/virtual game combination is intriguing and parallels some of the developments in motion analysis and tracking that I wrote about yesterday when discussing the motion performance.

The videos on the home page and in the Gallery are fascinating to watch. A player starts by standing in a 5 meter cushioned playfield and then does battle against virtual enemies. A video camera captures the image of the player in real-time and inserts this image on two screens in a virtual environment. So as the player kicks, jumps and moves, these motions are tracked and represented in the virtual space.

From the Kick Ass Kung-Fu website, I can't get a good handle on how the real-time capture system works. It appears that players don't have to have any type of motion tracing devices connected to their bodies for the computer system to create a 3D image of the players.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:09 PM - Permalink | Comments (1)

September 20, 2005

Dancing in the Changing Room

Gap clothing has an amusing Shockwave site called "Watch Me Change". You can watch either an annimated man or woman dancing while changing clothes. It's fun and silly. I came across this Gap site in a July post on Tom Higgins' Blog.

Posted by Doug Fox at 1:28 PM - Permalink | Comments (0)