For decades, American teenagers have stepped on the toes of their gym partners as they pitifully attempt to master dances such as the waltz and the Virginia Reel. It’s bad enough to have to be forced to attend mandatory Physical Education classes, particularly if you are not athletically gifted. But to force high school students into dancing such, let’s be honest, boring and antiquated dancing styles that are better suited to a more mature audience is a surefire way to squelch any budding love for dancing. Perhaps worse of all, though, is that fact that these dances require students to pair up with a partner of the opposite sex, sweaty hands and all. Yikes! It’s no wonder so many teens skip gym class.

Gym class in West Virginia is about to get more hip though, with the introduction of Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution into the curriculum of more than 750 West Virginia public schools. The state just recently signed a three-year agreement with the game developer to bring the popular video game into the classroom.

Dance Dance Revolution is a dancing game in which players step on four different directional arrows on a floor mat in time with a pattern of matching scrolling arrows on the game screen. The idea is to mimic the pattern displayed on the screen as closely as possible. As each arrow on the screen moves into the center “boxâ€�, players must step on the corresponding directional arrow on the floor mat. Each individual step is graded on a scale from a complete miss (a “boo”) to an exact identical match with perfect timing (”perfect”). At the end of the song, players are given an overall score based on their performance on the whole. With time and practice, players get better and better and begin to attempt to dance to more difficult songs, unlocking new music along the way.

West Virginia plans to incorporate Dance Dance Revolution in all 765 of the state’s public schools physical education and health curriculums, beginning with 103 middle and junior high schools in the next few months. This decision comes after a recent “Games for Health” study that was conducted by the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency and West Virginia University’s Motor Development Center revealed that the dancing game was very effective in increasing the physical activity level of children of all ages.

West Virginia has long had a problem with childhood obesity, making the state an ideal launching ground for the expansion of physical education curriculums. Konami referred to West Virginia’s obesity problem in children as nearing “epidemic proportions”, a harsh statement until you review the statistics: the Centers for Disease Control has ranked West Virginia as the third heaviest state in the country. The state’s rate of obesity trails only Mississippi and Alabama, giving West Virginia a powerful incentive for finding new ways to get children to exercise. Konami and the state of West Virginia hope that the data collected from the experimental DDR program will further support both the health and scholastic benefits of introducing the popular video game into school programs.

At least kids in West Virginia won’t have to hold their sweaty dance partners hands anymore.

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