West Virginia expands Dance Dance Revolution program

Although Snowshoe, Winterplace, and Canaan Valley (to name a few) are just getting cranked for the winter ski rush, it seems like the locals are the last ones hitting the slopes and burnin' through the calories, but there's just no escaping the workouts if you attend a West Virginia public school. Following the first round of Dance Dance Revolution implementations in the school systems, the state has now announced intentions to stick with the program for awhile longer. Apparently, children who participated in the trials were able to maintain their weight and "saw a reduction in some risk factors for heart disease and diabetes," and now plans are to put DDR in every single public school statewide. Furthermore, children who hopped on the mats for a frenzied round or two ended up feeling "more comfortable" participating in other extracurricular activities, somewhat proving that video games don't breed killers. Nah, there's no word on whether the principal / teachers will be fiercely competing with the kiddos, but we're not holding our collective breath.

[charlener @ Feb 2nd 2007 9:59PM]

principal is your "pal" :P

[Nushio @ Feb 2nd 2007 10:29PM]

I like Pump it up. When's it going to be implemented? :P

(IMO, and I'm entitled to it, PIU feels a lot more natural than the DPad DDR)

[thatkidthere @ Feb 2nd 2007 11:50PM]

haha all of those kids are asian. Classic DDR action. They do me proud.

[Aaron @ Feb 3rd 2007 1:15AM]

Man, this is rad. I'm glad to see this happening.

On a totally unrelated note, I live in VA and saw an ad in the paper for Canaan Valley last month, and I thought of Xenosaga... I felt dumb.

[james @ Feb 3rd 2007 10:46AM]

Cripes! I grew up in Canaan Valley. I never thought I'd see the name on Engadget. FWIW, in Canaan there are 3 ski areas, Whitegrass, Timberline and Canaan State Park. On topic, my mom used to teach and she talked about the DDR project. Interesting. They're right, it's more than exercise, it's a good icebreaker of sorts.

[Tom Jackson @ Feb 3rd 2007 1:45PM]

I love DDR, but In The Groove is a lot better. More interesting, more challenging.

BTW, I'm a 180-pound white guy. That being said, I put many of said asians to shame. :)

-tj

[Ryan @ Feb 3rd 2007 4:55PM]

Bravo.. brilliant idea from the school system for once. lol. Best way to fight obesity I've seen.

[Juan B @ Feb 3rd 2007 8:14PM]

At my school in Los Angeles,CA they already have DDR instead of PE

[Lazarus Dark @ Feb 4th 2007 7:18AM]

Hmmm...
Not a fan of ddr myself. Mostly cuz metalheads like myself don't dance. And definately dont listen to pop music crap. But I got a wii last week and was thinking they should totally put wii's in school. You can get a pretty good workout on games like wiisports and rayman.

[chris @ Feb 4th 2007 10:06AM]

I wish the big N would somehow get some more DDR action besides the SINGLE DDR (Mariomix) version which is a pita to get hold of without paying out the wazoo.

With the wiimote included somehow, it could also give bonus points for actually moving more than your feet. :)