Video: Dance Party - Warm Up

Hour of Code | Dance Party: Warm Up

Hi! My name is Miral Kotb and I'm a dancer, software developer, and creator of iLuminate.

Computer science relates to creativity in numerous ways. Immeasurable, really. I mean, once you have the ability to write software you can put ideas into anything. I do it with light suits. There's so much you can do once you have the tools to write software, and the possibilities are really endless.

Over the next hour, you're going to get started with computer science by programming your own dance party! We've assembled some hit music and a team of great dancers for you to play with.

You'll be using blocks of code to choose different dancers, change their dance moves, make them respond to the music, and make them interactive.

You'll see that your screen is split into three main parts. On the left is the play space. This is where your dancers will show up.

The middle area is the toolbox. New blocks of code will be available in this space as you go through the lessons.

The space to the right is the workspace. You can drag blocks out of the toolbox and into the workspace to build your program.

The instructions for each level will be up here at the top of the screen. If you need a hint, just click the light bulb.

To start off, let's make a new dancer with this red block. First, drag it out of the toolbox and snap it under this orange "setup" block. This dancer is a cat.

You can also change where the dancer appears in your play space with this.

Above the play space is a menu for picking out music. There are a ton of songs to choose from so have fun finding your favorites. Under the play space is the run button. When you press run, you'll see the dancers from your program appear in the play space and the music will play.

Try it yourself! And if you're feeling stuck, it's okay, just get up and get moving! And before you know it, you'll have made your own dance party. So, what will you create?