PLAY! Festival 2025

As it says on the tin, PLAY! Festival encourages you to play. Take part in this immersive experience, as you are guided through a newly-designed app that embraces both dance and AI technologies, led by doctoral student, Yuan Guo.

Image Dance is a mobile application developed as part of my practical research exploring creative early years dance pedagogy. The app offers an engaging, technology-enhanced approach to dance learning for young children and includes four key modules:

• Magic Stage: Using the device’s camera, the app captures body movements and binds them in real-time to a 3D cartoon character, allowing users to dance within a virtual scene.
• Playful Practice: An interactive game designed with motion detection technology, encouraging children to practice dance movements in a fun and dynamic way.
• AI Teaching Assistant: A library of 200 dance combinations, guided by AI to support independent learning and practice.
• Body Assessment: A tool developed specifically for dance students, measuring five key physical attributes — flexibility, explosiveness, endurance, coordination, and body control — to provide a comprehensive performance evaluation.

There is no formal performance — instead, the event creates a lively, participatory environment where visitors are encouraged to move, play, and interact freely. Whether you are a dancer, an educator, a technologist, or simply curious, come and discover how digital tools can reimagine the way we dance and learn. Participants will have the opportunity to try the App, enjoy motion-detection games, and explore the AI-guided Dance Library, which features 200 unique combinations.

Car parking

When you arrive for a College event at our Egham campus, please park in car parks 12 or 4.

Car park 12 can be accessed by turning right as you enter the main College gates and is located next to the tennis courts. If this car park is full, please drive further onto our campus to car park 4, which can be accessed by turning left at the mini-roundabout behind the Students’ Union. We would advise that you bring the College map to campus with you and give yourself plenty of time to park.

Blue Badge holders can find designated parking spaces in Car park 1W, as well as between Gardeners Lodge and the Williams Annexe. You can find these locations by looking at our campus map opposite. If you require any assistance on arrival, please contact our premises team in advance of your visit by emailing: premisesadmin@royalholloway.ac.uk and they will be happy to help.

Please note that we operate an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system on certain parts of our campus, however if you are here for an organised event, parking is unrestricted for event guests in car parks 12, 4 or 14 (or display your blue badge permit if parking in a disabled bay). If you have any questions about parking, please email: premisesadmin@royalholloway.ac.uk