Trivia / Just Dance

• Acting for Two:
  • In "Girlfriend" from 2, both coaches are portrayed by Julia Speisser. Both coaches are based on the two characters from the song's music video, where they were both portrayed by Avril Lavigne.
  • In Bang Bang Bang from 2019, both the lead and backup coaches are portrayed by Isaiah Rashaad, who also choreographed the routine.
  • In 2023 Edition, Sara and Night Swan were both portrayed by Shirley Henault. Notably, they "fight" each other at one point in "Majesty". Henault also portrays Liza Friday from "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", who appears simultaneously with both Sara and Night Swan in "Can't Stop the Feeling". In 2024 Edition, Night Swan is now portrayed by Maïwenn Bramoulle, allowing for more physical interaction between her and Sara.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: The first one sold surprisingly well and is, along with Dance Central, often credited for reinvigorating the dance game genre. Being cheap and easy to make, it spawned yearly sequels that were made available to every console imaginable, to the point there is even a version playable via smartphones. While nowadays Just Dance doesn't sell nearly as much as it did at the height of its popularity, it's still one of Ubisoft's most profitable properties, along with Assassin's Creed. It's so profitable of a franchise that it's the only game series still being developed for the Wii up to Just Dance 2020's release.
• Christmas Rushed: This happened with 2023 Edition where higher ups at Ubisoft forced the game to be finished in 11 months.
• Colbert Bump: Whenever a game features a song that's relatively obscure, that song will get a boost in popularity as fans look up the full version.
• Content Leak:
  • Just Dance is infamous among fans with this problem, with many maps have been leaked prior to their announcement (if it even gets released), mostly through data mining the Just Dance Unlimited and Just Dance+ servers. Even entire song lists for upcoming games have been leaked. Nearly the entire 2022 tracklist was leaked months before the game's release, including a few songs that were apparently intended for the base game but are either ended up being added via Unlimited, JD+, or unused.
  • Early versions of maps, in some cases featuring completely different coaches or choreography, are often leaked through data mining. One example is K3's "Waterval" from 2022, which was filmed with both a male and female lead coach. The latter was ultimately used after the then-unknown newest member of K3 was announced as a female, leaving the male version of the map unused, but still existing in the servers.
  • Many unused Chinese-exclusive maps were found in the Chinese Now and Unlimited servers almost immediately after they went live. Very few of these maps appeared in either games.
  • In some cases, maps have been accidentally leaked by the dancers themselves. One example is "Freed From Desire" from 2022, which did have promotional screenshots officially released, but it was not yet announced what song they were for, and many assumed they were for "Levitating". The routine's choreographer and dancer posted the screenshots and named the song well before Ubisoft officially announced it.
  • "Crayon", a 2020 post-launch map on Unlimited, was leaked shortly after its recording when the dancer posted a work-in-progress of the routine's video file on his Instagram, and even named the song.
  • "Stupid Love" and "Come Back Home", both 2021 post-launch maps on Unlimited, were leaked when a dancer who did both maps mentioned them when asked by a fan if she had participated in any 2021 maps.
  • Perhaps the most notorious scrapped coach and map to be leaked was Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You", intended for 2014. Excerpts of the coach which were used in Mashup and Party Master maps, and some assets for the map bearing its codename ("AllIWant"), were still found in the files of its intended game and the two games after it. Some data miners claimed to possess the routine's video file (referred to as a "No HUD" in the community), and small snippets of previously-unseen moves were occasionally posted around Christmas time as the years went on. More of the routine was leaked in December 2022 when a video was posted of the map being played on a beta Xbox 360 build of 2014, and the video file was finally leaked in its entirety on Christmas Day 2022, albeit watermarked by the leakers. It later leaked without the watermark after a few months.
  • Many, many songs and routines were leaked during the production of 2023 Edition, via data mining on the servers, and in occasional rumored incidents of hacking into the Ubisoft office's storage drives. Only two of the leaked songs ended up being added via JD+ ("Wet Tennis" by SOFI TUKKER, which is part of "Season 1: Lover Coaster" and "Sacrifice" by The Weeknd, which is part of "Season 3: Beach, Summer & Vampires") while the rest remain unused, such as Dua Lipa's "Love Again" (first deduced from a promotional TikTok showing the coach and choreographer lip-syncing the song's lyrics prior to the routine leaked), "Whine Up" by Kat DeLuna featuring Elephant Man (part of the leaked songs, and the song's codename was found in Gabriela's avatar in 2024 Edition), "Don't Rush" by Young T and Bugsley and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" by Eurthymics.
  • Several official names of coaches were discovered by data miners when Just Dance 2023 Edition was first released in the files and are instantly adopted by fans despite not being made official by Ubisoft, with these aforementioned files removed in subsequent updates. Most of these names would later resurface in-game from an update on November 21, 2023 in Just Dance+.
  • Nearly every song in 2024 Edition has been leaked, with some leaking as early as eight months before the game's launch. Among the first leaks were "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", both routines for "How You Like That", and "Butter". Another batch of leaks showed a work-in-progress video of "Gimme More", featuring the return of Agent D from "Toxic". Shortly before "Gimme More" was officially announced, the final map was leaked. This caught the attention of the dancer who portrays Agent D (Julie Bagalciaque), who criticized the leaks and pleaded with fans to stop spreading them. Many well-known fans in the community also criticized the leaks and refused to acknowledge them.
    Julie Bagalciaque (via Instagram Story): ...And for the people who share the leaks, who stole our work, don't be proud of yourself. There is no glory to be had from this. There are a thousand ways to use your talents for more worthwhile causes.
• Contest Winner Cameo:
  • The basis of the Community Remixes. Fans send clips of them dancing to the developers, who pick their favourites and integrate them into the game.
  • Occasionally, Ubisoft will run contests where players can submit choreographies of their own, with the winning one being converted into a "Fanmade" routine, available through streaming services.
  • One of the prizes granted to the winner of the World Cup is the opportunity to work with the development team in the creation of a level to be integrated in the game.
• Creator's Favorite: Apparently, Jack Rose is Ubisoft's favorite character of the Danceverses Saga, with the team fawning over him so much that one of the profile aliases for the Just Dance service is "I love Jack Rose", which is unlockable after reaching Progression Level 29 of 2023 Edition's first season, Lover Coaster. Then, in a New Year's post made by Ubisoft themselves, one of the resolutions (specifically in the "ins" section) is just named "Jack Rose", indicating that Ubisoft really wants to see more of Jack, which may end up coming true given the conclusion of Dance with the Swan, with him being left behind to possibly save his corrupted friends.
• Defictionalization: Robin Sparkles' "Let's Go to the Mall" is included in Just Dance 3.
• Died During Production: Michael Jackson: The Experience was the last video game the man himself personally worked on prior to his death; the game was still in early development when Jackson died, and wasn't released until well over a year after his death.
• Follow the Leader:
  • The first game's surprise success led to more motion-controlled dance games on the Wii, Xbox 360 Kinect, and PlayStation 3 Move, such as Dance Central, Dance Masters, Dance Paradise, and Sing Star Dance.
  • One of the most blatant knockoffs is Country Dance, published by GameMill Entertainment, which uses an HUD and pictogram system almost identical to Just Dance but with in-game models as coaches instead of full motion video, and the next pictogram will always be present on the screen before it slides in. Reviewers have noted that the game does not feature true motion detection and any motion at all from the Wii Remote will most likely get you perfect feedback (Just Dance guarantees an OK rating with any motion starting with JD 2, but matching the moves does matter for higher scores). Many consumers thought this game was an official Just Dance spinoff.
  • Another obvious copy is Get Up and Dance from O Games, which uses Just Dance-like coaches right down to the white skin and single brightly-colored gloves. Ubisoft deemed the latter so similar and threatening to sales of then-recent JD 3 that they tried to threaten legal action to no avail. The only notable differences are that Get Up and Dance has a different pictogram system and uses music video backgrounds for most of its maps, plus it allows the option to dance with two motion controllers. It also uses trio routines (which Just Dance itself did not introduce until JD 2014), although it is done in the style of Michael Jackson: The Experience, where the left and right dancers are clones that do not interact with the lead dancer.
  • There is also Everybody Dance (AKA Dance Star Party in PAL regions) and its sequel, exclusively for PS3. The games share many songs in common with Just Dance, including Rasputin, right down to having a big-bearded coach. The coaches in this game are monochrome and hold a PS Move controller instead of wearing a glove. The pictograms in this game generally lump multiple consecutive moves into one pictogram, making most of them extremely difficult to discern.
  • Michael Jackson: The Experience on the DS is a quite blatant knock-off of the popular Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan series.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Just Dance 2021 received token sets at Arby's.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition:
  • Just Dance 2 had a Best Buy Edition that included 3 extra songs, which later were released along with most of the DLC in ''Summer Party''.
  • Just Dance 3 had two special versions: The Target Edition (also known as Zellers in Canada) featured B.O.B.'s Airplanes and Rihanna's "Only Girl" as playable tracks; the Best Buy Edition included two extra songs by Katy Perry;.
• Meaningful Release Date: "Come On Eileen", a song with a very St. Patrick's themed map, initially released as DLC for 2 appropriately on March 17, 2011. In a rare case of this happening again with the same exact thing, it came out again on the same date on Unlimited for 2022 and NOW as part of Season 1: Astral, exactly eleven years later. As of 2023 Edition's release, it is the only song to be released on the same date on two different games.
• Meme Acknowledgement: Upon the surprise release of "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love", the official account posted a picture referencing CaptainSparklez's Minecraft-themed parody of the song, "Revenge", featuring his Minecraft character from the video holding a diamond pickaxe, both pixelated put on the background of the routine with a pixelated moon with the caption, "so we back in the mine". Unlike other meme promotional images they've made that just focus on the original songs, this one references the 2019 "Creeper Aw Man" meme that made the parody explode in popularity.
• No Export for You:
  • In Just Dance 2014, Players in the NTSC region get the tracks Dançando and The Other Side, and players in the PAL region get the tracks Danse and Alfonso Signorini.
  • Averted when Dançando and The Other Side were released as DLC in the PAL region, but half of this trope still applies because the PAL exclusive tracks were not released for the NTSC region. Averted also in Just Dance 4 when Good Girl, which was an NTSC exclusive song, was released in the PAL region as DLC.
  • Averted with the previously PAL exclusive tracks "Danse", "Cercavo Amore" and "Diggin' in the Dirt", which are now available for the NTSC region via Just Dance Now.
  • The Japanese exclusives Just Dance Wii, Just Dance Wii 2, Just Dance Wii U and Yokai Watch Just Dance count. Not only are they exclusive to Japan, but they're exclusive to Nintendo consoles, due to Nintendo publishing the games instead of Ubisoft. Although one song from Wii U ("EZ Do Dance") was added to Unlimited, it is only playable in Japan, where the main games are exclusive to Switch. If a PS4 or Xbox One player in another country tries to access the song with a VPN to play with a camera, they will not able to score, as no score tracking files were ever made for any of the Japanese songs for cameras (except for "USA" and "Koi", which were later added to Unlimited worldwide).
  • Most of the songs from Just Dance China have never been released outside of the country; one song ("Rainbow Beats") was added to Unlimited in the 2021 era, another ("Princess") was a Southeast Asian exclusive for 2022 and added to Unlimited elsewhere, and a third("Dare to Live") was added to JD+, but that is all for now. One of the Chinese exclusives, "Gokuraku Joudo", is actually a Japanese song, but is not even available in Japan. Another non-Chinese exclusive to the Chinese game is "Gee" by Girls Generation, a K-pop song.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • A fan who goes by the alias TheFairyDina was brought on board by Ubisoft to help provide creative input for the 2023 Edition version of "Toxic". She also makes a cameo in the background of the map, appearing as a plane passenger in a gold hot tub.
  • A fan named Redoo became famous in the community for creating realistic Just Dance map concepts, applying coach effects to green screen videos recorded by other fans, animating backgrounds, creating pictograms, and adding the game's HUD. In 2023, Ubisoft hired him as a video artist. His first job was designing the background for the JD+ map "Give That Wolf a Banana".
  • In 2024 Edition, the map for "Can't Tame Her" features Avery Price, better known as her online alias "littlesiha", as the coach, with the background designed by Redoo. This was actually the second time they worked together; littlesiha previously served as the coach for Redoo's fanmade map for "Just Got Paid" by Sigala prior to his hiring at Ubisoft.
• Prop Recycling:
  • Outfits and backgrounds are frequently reused in routines for subsequent games, often with minimal alterations. The panda costume is the most prevalent example.
  • The songs for the Double Rumble levels in 2018 are lifted directly from Rayman Origins, another Ubisoft property.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • The two coaches of "Diamonds (Seated Version)" are portayed by real-life married couple Celine Rotsen and Cain Kitsais, who have choreographed dozens of maps throughout the franchise.
  • Two of the four coaches of "Slumber Party" are portayed by sisters Paola and Luana Guivel (P1 and P3, respectively).
  • The two coaches of "Sucker", a wedding-themed map, are portrayed by real-life married couple Sasha Merenkova and Vova Hincu.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Kris Wu's "大碗宽面 (Da Wan Kuan Mian)" was featured in the Chinese version of 2020 as well as Just Dance Unlimited's Chinese servers, but was removed in July 2021 in a patch following sexual assault allegations against him. Another map featuring his song "Bad Girl", originally planned for the Chinese version of Now, was overdubbed with an original song titled "Gorgeous Diva" before being added to the Chinese Unlimited service.
• Saved from Development Hell: Some levels that were scrapped from their original games resurfaced in later entries, such as:
  • "Just Dance" from 2 being released in 2014 with a new routine.
  • "Copacabana" from 2014 and "You Can Never Tell" from 2015 being released in 2016.
  • "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka-dot Bikini" and "In the Hall of the Pixel King" being moved from 2017 to 2018.
  • "Bang Bang Bang" was originally gonna appear in the Chinese versions of 2017 and Now, but was scrapped. It then appeared in 2019 as part of the main series, albeit with P2's routine reshot and the Native American headdress changed to a hard hat with a feather display, due to cultural appropriation concerns.
  • One of the most egregious examples is "Dancing Queen", which was supposed to be in Just Dance 2015, but was only released via the Unlimited service in the 2018 era, nearly 4 years after it was originally recorded. Even the dancers themselves expressed surprise at its addition after so long.
  • "Boy With Luv" being moved from 2020 to 2023 Edition, with two new routines.
  • "Run the World (Girls)" was intended to be featured in 2021, proven by promotional artwork, but was moved to 2022.
  • "Break My Heart" from 2022 was intended to be on the base game, and its coach was featured in promotional materials and even the game's title screen. It ended up being the final permanent new song on Unlimited, and the Just Dance social media team lampshaded its delay by posting, "A queen is never late to a party."
  • "drivers license" being moved from 2022 to 2023 Edition.
• Screwed by the Lawyers:
  • Drake's "Nice for What" was removed from Just Dance 2019 following a day one patch due to licensing issues. However, early copies of the Wii port have the song as an exclusive level, since it's the only version that cannot be patched. It is also intact on all copies of the Xbox 360 port; even though that version is capable of being patched, Ubisoft likely decided not to bother since JD 2019 was their final game on the console and had abandoned development for it.
  • Several LGBT-friendly songs, such as "Sissy that Walk" by Ru Paul, were removed from Russian and Middle Eastern versions of Just Dance 2023 due to their anti-LGBT laws.
• The Other Darrin: Several instances of recurring coaches being portrayed by multiple different dancers.
  • The Bride was portrayed by a different person in all four of her appearances to date: Julia Speisser ("Hot N Cold"), Shirley Henault ("Sugar"), Marie Surzur ("Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"), and Alexandra "Sasha" Ponomaryova ("Sweet But Psycho").
  • Polo is portrayed by Lorenzo Dasse in "Mood", and by Claude Cormier in "Danger! High Voltage" alternate version.
  • Topaz is portrayed by Marion Champmartin in "Buttons", and by Victoria Prevel in "Don't Cha".
  • Mihaly is usually portrayed by Soraya Gacem, but their corrupted form in "Tainted Love" is portrayed by Axelle Carrere. They are the only character in that map to be portrayed by a different person in their corrupted form.
  • Fuschia Blue is portrayed by Claude Cormier in "Boy, You Can Keep It", and by Mehdi Mamine in "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" alternate version.
• Throw It In!: "Drop the Mambo" from 2016 was originally going to feature a female dancer, but after seeing choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche's enthusiasm while he was teaching the steps to the dancer, the crew decided to have him as the dancer in front of the camera instead.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Several routines throughout the games have been cut for one reason or another. Hints to their existence can only be found through hacking or thanks to irregular appearances from Beta coaches in some mashups, like the man from "So Good", which was originally supposed to appear in Just Dance 4, suddenly showing up in "Ghost in the Keys", from Just Dance 2017.
  • Datamining in the games reveal codenames of songs that were meant for the game, but were cut in the final product. These songs include Move Your Body, Jungle Drum, and Shake.
  • Rihanna's "Man Down" was originally planned for 2014, but it ended up being cut for unknown reasons, most likely due to its controversial nature. The beta version can be found here.
  • "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polkadot Bikini" by Brian Hyland was originally planned for 2017; however, it got edited and moved to 2018 for an unexplained reason.
  • Just Dance 2017 would have had an alternate level for "Titanium", but it was scrapped. Brief footage of the choreography can be seen here.
  • The song "Dame Tu Cosita" was originally going to be featured on 2019; however, it was later relegated to the Just Dance streaming service as a 2018 post-launch map. The official reason is unknown, though it's highly suspected that this was in response to either the immense backlash that the song and routine received or the song itself being too explicit for the game.
  • "Wannabe"^note the Spice Girls song that was in the first game, not the ITZY song already in 2023 Edition was originally going to be the legacy track coming to JD+ on May 25, 2023 as part of Season 2: Showdown, but 6 days earlier it was announced for unknown reasons that it would be replaced with "Toy" and "Waterloo" coming earlier than their original planned release date of June 15 with the "Eurovision Song Contest" playlist containing other songs not on JD+.
• Working Title: 2014 used to be 5.