Dancing Queens

Inspiration

Dancing Queens was inspired by girls with disabilities who are too often asked to adapt to activities that were not designed for them. We wanted to create a dance experience where every girl can participate exactly as she is, whether she moves through a wheelchair glide, a head tilt, eye gaze, one arm, or a single switch press.

What it does

Dancing Queens turns each dancer’s available movement into music, light, animation, and adaptive choreography. Caregivers choose the dancer’s needs, add specific requirements, adjust sensitivity, and start a guided camera calibration. The system then creates movement targets and prompts that match the child’s abilities, with no scores, wrong moves, or pressure to perform.

How we built it

We built Dancing Queens as a browser-based adaptive dance prototype using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, canvas animation, camera input, and motion tracking. The system captures low-resolution camera frames, compares them over time to detect motion, estimates a movement point, confidence level, velocity, and body zone, then maps that data into adaptive dance targets and visual/audio effects. Instead of requiring a “correct” pose, the app uses AI and combines camera motion signals, selected accessibility profile, access method, sensitivity settings, dwell time, and typed support requirements like “eye gaze only,” “no left hand,” or “low stimulation.” It uses that context to choose what counts as valid input, which body areas should be used, how large targets should be, how long they should stay, and what prompts should appear. The prototype also includes a backend movement-mapping endpoint that receives features like movement level, position, velocity, zone, access mode, effect style, and current movement goal. That endpoint returns an interpreted action and confidence score, which the frontend uses to update the dance feedback. In short, Dancing Queens uses AI-assisted adaptive mapping to translate each girl’s available movement into personalized choreography, music, light, and celebration.

Challenges we ran into

The hardest part was balancing magic with accessibility. Early versions were filled with movements that did not match the selected profile. We had to simplify the interface, reduce animation load, make targets stay longer, and ensure prompts adapted to each dancer’s requirements.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that Dancing Queens centers disabled girls as the performers, not as an afterthought. The prototype supports multiple access styles, lets users combine needs, adapts movement prompts, and keeps the emotional tone celebratory instead of clinical. It feels joyful while still solving a real inclusion problem.

What we learned

We learned that accessibility is not just adding settings. It means designing the whole experience around flexibility, patience, dignity, and delight. We also learned that a calmer interface can feel more magical when it gives the dancer room to be the focus.

What's next for Dancing Queens

Next, we would improve pose and gaze tracking, test with real users, add more avatar options, expand caregiver session reports, support more assistive devices, and partner with inclusive dance programs, schools, and pediatric therapy spaces.