The “Dance Dance Revolution” Revolution

There's a dance craze sweeping the country, but don't grab a partner just yet. . . .This is a dance that can be done only with a machine. Sound cold and impersonal? Actually, it's anything but.

Some compare it to former generations' swing or disco crazes.

To youth around the world, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is indeed a revolution. It's forging friendships, building communities, and, perhaps most important, getting people to congregate in order to do something more active than sitting in front of a TV.

"There's just a great community surrounding it," says Hollis, ME, resident Snooj Dowdy, 31. Dowdy discovered the game at a local mall 3 years ago, and loved it so much that he bought two machines and rented space where he could keep them in an old mill. It's become a hot spot where teenagers and adults alike gather nightly to play. "It's really changed my life," he says. "Because of the DDR Maine community, I have way more friends now than I ever did in high school."

Developed in the late 1990s, the game, made by the Japanese company Konami, is a bit like a foot-version of the 1980s game Simon. How do you play? Arrows pointing in various directions pop up on an eye-level screen; each arrow corresponds to one of four buttons that must be hit by your feet on the small stage on which you're standing. The result is a dance that looks something like a marionette trying to dance hip-hop. If you decide to hop on one of the 2,000-plus machines in the country, beware: You'll quickly be surrounded by a flock of young people cheering you on.

At the site DDRFreak.com, a whole dictionary of DDR terms has been collected. "Our site started out as just a few friends who were interested in the game," says one of the site's managers, Cynan de Leon, 28, of San Jose, CA. Similar sites soon formed to support DDR groups everywhere from England to Indiana. "Now we get over 2 million hits a month. It's just something that really appeals to many different kinds of young people," he says.

Some compare it to former generations' swing or disco crazes. Others say it's just a game like any other video game. In either case, it's bringing a lot of joy into young people's lives.

Posted on February 27, 2006