Dance2Music : an exploration of music creation through dance in virtual reality

Abstract

We present Dance2Music, a virtual reality dance experience where the music changes based on the way that the dancer moves. The user is immersed in an environment where they are free to express themselves, and the user's hand and head positions are tracked in real time. We develop a set of mappings from movement to musical responses that translates the user's movement expression to musical expression. We then evaluate the system through a series of user testing. Through the creation and evaluation of this system, we examine the connection between music and dance from a new perspective. We explore ways to map from movement to music. We further discuss the features that contribute to a natural, intuitive user experience, such as enabling the music to vary over a wide expressive range and constructing a compelling visual environment