Can AI Teach You To Dance?

Many innovators are predicting the dangers of AI because of our increased dependence on technology, the end of creativity, and job losses. Read this post to find out if AI can also replace dance teachers.

In the movie The Tuxedo, Jackie Chan has a special smart watch. The moment Jackie taps on the dance mode on the smart watch, he starts doing the amazing James Brown dance style. The writer of this movie was probably one of the first to predict how technology can easily control and direct our dance moves. That and also the fact that it’s Jackie Chan, the perfectionist who took dance lessons for 3 months before shooting the scene.

Our personal and professional lives have shrunk into a smart watch. Ideally, humans wanted to have control and convenience over their lives. But it has turned out to be the opposite. Google guides us and teaches us many things.

Can a smartwatch or an AI teach humans to dance? Will human dance teachers lose their jobs to AI in the future?

Disclaimer: All contents in this post about information, ideas, and writing are my own and not those of an AI. There are no affiliate links attached to this post.

POST CONTENTS
Qualities of a dance teacher
Benefits of using dance apps
Dance Artists and AI

QUALITIES OF A DANCE TEACHER

Being a dance teacher is a little bit different than teaching any other subject.

A dance teacher is friendly and empathetic. It is impossible to teach anyone to dance by force or by being strict. Dance is a heart subject.

Dance teachers are disciplined and dedicated to their craft. It is during training that dancers understand that movement coordination is only possible when the mind is disciplined. And teachers impart the same lessons to their students.

Dance, as an art form, demands creativity. One cannot exist without the other. The amazing thing is that a dance teacher can get inspired by other dancers but cannot copy a step or choreography. It’s like handwriting, which is unique to every person.

Dance teachers were the earliest visual influencers. Their medium of expression is physical movement. Whatever the dance style, a performance has an emotional, ecstatic, and instant impact on the audience.

Dance teachers inspire students by improving their dancing as well as their confidence. Learning dance means being in a class that is therapeutic for your body and mind. Dance teachers help students become more comfortable with their own bodies.

Your movement tells a story about yourself and the character you are playing. Your body language can be strong or graceful, classical or street, but it’s unique.

Dancing is more than just about flexibility and performing stunts. Dance teachers patiently teach students to express themselves and communicate clearly through their movements.

Dance teachers do multi-tasking: teaching dance steps, creating choreography, collaborating with set designers and sound technicians, handling costume and make-up disasters, listening to parents, managing class, studio management, etc.

BENEFITS OF USING DANCE APPS

Lockdown showed us a new way of living and dancing at home through the use of apps. Some dance teachers also gave live classes online. Dance apps have any benefits like:

Convenience of place and dancing in the comfort of home.

Saving time and money on travel.

Several choices of dance apps with all the basic information.

Having fun with family and friends without any formality of class discipline.

No social pressure of being judged for your dancing. 

Connecting with like-minded people across the world. 

With all these advantages of a dance app, students still prefer to learn from a real dance teacher and not from an app. It isn’t just the difficulty of understanding steps but instead missing the connection. Isn’t it ironic that, despite a strong internet connection, we still feel lonely? It is the heart distance that matters most, even if an app is solving all our problems. 

DANCE ARTISTS AND AI

If you ask an AI tool or even Google, “How can I learn to dance?” It will give you very clear and practical steps to learn dancing, but only in theory. If you will ask a more specific question to AI: “How can I learn to do a handstand in one week?” AI will give you the correct answer to that as well, in theory. What’s missing? AI is solving a problem, isn’t it?

My reason for writing this post, starting a dance blog, changing it into a fitness and dance blog, and dedicating time to writing is to express myself. If I ever get the highest ranking on Google and get numerous likes and comments on my post, but I am only using AI to do that, I have failed in my purpose of expressing. That’s what dancers do as well – express emotions and thoughts. 

So why use AI to learn dance and create a choreography?

AI does not get affected by personal or political issues like dance artists do.

AI does not suffers from lack of ideas as a choreographer and therefore, helps a dancer to complete a choreography quickly. 

AI can be fed selective dance steps according to different dance styles.

AI can be a useful tool for studio managers to record student’s records and even respond to basic information for instant customer support service.

But AI, even though is fun to try, cannot encourage you to take that first step to dance like no one’s watching.

Final Thoughts

Over the years of performing and teaching, I have realised that being emotional is not my weakness but my strength. If I don’t let things impact and frustrate me, I probably won’t desperately find ways to express myself, either through movement or writing. 

With just two hands and two legs, humans have created so many dance steps and are still creating new dance forms. AI is a great imitation tool like a mirror, but it cannot create anything unique, express and encourage people, or replace dance teachers because the most important reason humanity has thrived over the centuries is through teamwork and support. 

Whatever the future holds for AI and humans, I conclude that the job of a dance teacher will always be secure for humans.