Wedding season is in full swing, bringing with it a familiar sense of dread for anyone who fears the dance floor.But relief may finally be at hand with the help of a new app, Dance Guru, and a virtual reality (VR) headset.The social dance instruction app transports users to a spacious, digital dance studio.Waiting inside is a computer-generated coach: a handsome, male avatar wearing a shirt open to his navel.
He speaks with a slightly gravelly English accent."Watch me now," he instructs at the start of a waltz lesson — which NPR tried out at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, Calif., an annual conference showcasing the latest developments in virtual and augmented reality.The avatar then demonstrates a basic box step.From there, the lesson becomes interactive.The coach tells the user to hold his hand while an electric pinging sound tracks the student's foot placement."One, two, three, four, five, six," the virtual teacher counts down.When the user stumbles, he remains remarkably patient.
"Do not worry, foundations take time.Let's try that again.
Work on grounding your steps more intentionally."Dance Guru creator David Huang said he came up with the idea for the app a couple of years ago out of frustration."I always wanted to learn to dance and I was always terrible at it," Huang said."And I always ended up stopping midway through the lessons."He soon realized that many beginners hit the exact same roadblocks."Private lessons are too expensive, and you feel like you're always forgetting the dance steps," Huang said.
"You cannot find a partner to dance with.So I figured maybe I can create something like this."The Dance Guru platform currently offers tutorials in salsa, bachata, waltz, and cha-cha, in both lead and follow modes.
To make the digital instruction feel authentic, Huang used motion-capture technology to record the movements of real-life dance teachers — with their permission.Dance Guru belongs to a small but growing wave of apps using VR to dem...