People are only just realising that the Just Dance dancers are real people

For over 15 years, the Just Dance series of games has been inspiring players to bust some moves in their living rooms. Ubisoft released the first game in 2009 as a quirky experiment, but it rapidly became a cultural staple with annual releases spanning console generations, from the Wii to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.

Yet still today, one of the longest-running rhythm game franchises in history still has the ability to surprise people. It turns out that a lot of players didn't realise that the dancers in Just Dance are real people.

Just Dance is a physical game for developers as much as for players. The sharp dance moves aren't animated from scratch or generated by algorithms. They were choreographed and performed by professional dancers, whose performances were captured with motion‑tracking technology so they could be transformed into animated characters in the game.

In the early games, Ubisoft used traditional motion capture setups with cameras and sensors to record dancers and map their moves to stylised avatars. In more recent years, it's used markerless motion capture employing multiple GoPro cameras to generate 3D motion data from 2D video footage without the need for special suits or reflective markers.

What's most surprising people is that the dancers' outfits and makeup are also all real rather than the result of post-production effects. Even masks are made physically by costume designers – you can see some of the process in the Making of Just Dance 2025 video below.

Just Dance 2025 Edition - The Making Of - YouTube

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Some people are impressed that Ubisoft hasn't tried to save cash by resorting to AI, but I think the difference in the results would be drastic. The use of human dancers gives authenticity and cohesion to the dance moves while also ensuring the quality of the game's visuals and making it feel more organic. On the flipside, it means there's less excuse if you're not keeping up with the moves: they're all possible for human dancers to achieve.

“It totally changes how you look at the game. Those moves aren’t just animated, they’re real people bringing that energy. Mad respect to the dancers!,” one person writes on X. “Once you realize rotoscoping exists, half of modern visuals suddenly feel way less mysterious,” someone else suggests.

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