

Players grip their personal devices in their hands, and attempt to mirror the dance being done on the TV. On the screen, a person (or people) engages in an animated and energetic dance, with colorful, lively animations playing out in the background. If you are unfamiliar with Just Dance, here’s how it works: Just Dance plays a banging song, usually with a pulsing, prominent beat.

The day before the release of Just Dance 2021, I dug all of my old phones out of a drawers, started them charging, and updated the Just Dance app. Having previously dismissed these games as weird niche party games, my family has completely turned the page on the Just Dance franchise. But that didn’t change the excitement that built up at my place in anticipation of Just Dance 2021.

Eventually, after several months, my family pivoted away from Just Dance 2020 and moved on to other pursuits to keep us entertained on what I’ve started calling our “Mission to Mars”. Its unclear what algorithm keeps popping my Just Dance article into people’s feeds – perhaps it is just the quiet popularity of the Just Dance franchise - but the spirit of the article holds true. Somehow, this article is still getting read today, continuously appearing in the top 20 articles on Gaming Nexus. In April of 2020, I wrote a piece about Just Dance 2020, and how my family was using it to spend time together and get some exercise early in the pandemic. There is no real way to predict what will take on a life of its own, but every now and then and article gets legs online and refuses to die. As a writer, it is always interesting to me which articles that I write catch on with the internet, and which disappear into the ether.
