Author Description
What happens when machines teach humans to dance? Dance video games transform players' experiences of popular music, invite experimentation with gendered and racialized movement styles, and present new possibilities for teaching, learning, and archiving choreography. Drawing on five years of research with players, game designers, and choreographers for the Just Dance and Dance Central games, Playable Bodies situates dance games in a media ecology that includes the larger game industry, viral music videos, reality TV competitions, marketing campaigns, and emerging surveillance technologies. Author Kiri Miller tracks the circulation of dance gameplay and related body projects across media platforms to reveal how dance games function as intimate media, configuring new relationships among humans, interfaces, music and dance repertoires, and social media practices.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates how dance video games function as intimate media, shaping the ways humans interact with music, choreography, and social identity through digital interfaces. Kiri Miller, a scholar in music and media studies, utilizes five years of ethnographic research to examine the intersection of gaming, popular music, and bodily performance. She argues that these games are not merely entertainment but are part of a broader media ecology that influences how movement is taught, learned, and archived in the digital age.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of popular dance game franchises including Just Dance and Dance Central.
- Examination of how games intersect with viral music videos, reality television, and surveillance technology.
- Discussion of how players experiment with gendered and racialized movement styles.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive history of all dance-based video games.
- The analysis focuses primarily on the cultural and social implications rather than the technical programming or hardware engineering of the games.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars in media and game studies frequently cite this work for its nuanced approach to the relationship between digital interfaces and physical embodiment. Experts highlight the book as a significant contribution to understanding how gaming culture influences contemporary social media practices and dance education.
Page Count:
251
Publication Date:
2017-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190257865
ISBN-13:
9780190257866
Dance
Technology and Society
Humanities
Social Aspects
Trades & Technology
Media Studies
Sociology
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