6 minute read
Gothic, Ghosts, and… Dancing? | Antonina Nizielska
from Issue 9 Games
Antonina Nizielska
Here I am, in my living room, playing Just Dance 2022. I pick Lady Gaga’s “Judas” as the next song. The dancer strikes a pose and begins to move. She dances in a strange, dark castle with enormously high, black walls. And then it hits me. It’s a Gothic mansion with a modern twist.
There are more than 80 songs in Just Dance 2022 and 2023. Each song has a unique map functioning as a background for the dancing coach. The scenery can be quite diverse; from dancing life-size pandas and K-pop stars to inanimate objects and blue-skin aliens, Just Dance has it all. Also, some maps incorporate elements from Gothic fiction into their structure – be it a forgotten castle, a cemetery, a monster, or a vampire. Those motifs are grounded in the literary tradition of Gothic fiction from the 18th and 19th centuries. Gothic is more than a literary trope. The term can also be used to denote a general atmosphere of terror, fear, and the existence of the supernatural.
Probably the first thing that comes to mind after hearing the word ‘Gothic’ is an old, gloomy mansion. It’s exactly what a player sees on the map for “Judas” by Lady Gaga. The mansion contains several architectural elements of a Gothic cathedral in mediaeval Europe. On the other hand, there are parts of a motorbike built into its structure. They say that Gothic architecture was born out of a desire for natural light, but in this mansion, there are no windows. The walls are plunged in darkness, lit to the beat by bright neon pink and yellow lights. Tires with wheel rims are incorporated into the building’s splendid, curved arches. Instead of stone gargoyles, there are shiny, black motor fenders placed on the facades. Furthermore, the coach’s name in “Judas” is Shadow Rider. Dressed in a leather motor suit with silver chains, she and her gang of shadow men prowl the area of the mansion. Rather than praying or running around in a labyrinth of corridors, like Matilda or Isabella from Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (a Gothic fiction classic), Shadow Rider prefers attending a modern rave in an old cathedral. Overall, the mansion’s space is not nearly as hostile as in Gothic fiction. Shadow Rider owns the place and transforms it as she pleases: into a strange hybrid of a Gothic church and a motorbike. But she’s not the only female figure haunting Gothic places. You can also encounter witches.
Who is the witch’s best friend? A black cat, naturally. The black cat’s owner, a sorceress called Felicia, performs to Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary”. Felicia is equipped with everything an average witch needs – be it magic potions, candles, kettles lit under green fire, a short, sleeveless, glittery dress with sexy Victorian bustles, or her many cats. Felicia dances in two locations. The first one is her witch study, the other one is a cemetery in the middle of the night. The area of the graveyard is filled with examples of liminal space – a place of transition between the real and the fantastical – a pivotal element of space in Gothic fiction. Using existing physical boundaries, such as gates, tunnels, or secret doors, characters from Gothic fiction transcend the realm of the real and step into the supernatural. As a result, the liminal space illustrates a clash of two different dimensions – a black iron gate and a gigantic cat-shaped mansion are these boundaries. Felicia’s map exhibits the conflict of realistic versus artificial and natural versus supernatural, as it transforms the inside and outside of the house from something domestic into something witchy.
Gothic fiction is strongly connected with the presence of a monster – sometimes perceived as a creature out of this world, contradictory, incomplete, or even revolting. When talking about monsters, there is always more than meets the eye. The Forgotten Queen, the coach dancing to “Human” by Sevdaliza, half woman, half water creature, performs her flowy, sensual dance at the bottom of the sea. She has long curly dreadlocks and is wearing a net-like bra and skirt. Although she looks like a woman at first glance, the coach transgresses the boundaries of a fully human existence and presents herself as somewhat uncanny. She has a liminal body, arms, legs, and torso of a human, skin with scales, a big head covered in thick ridges, and the protruding structure of bones of a monster. She embodies the clash of human versus beast and civilised versus primitive, just like Frankenstein’s monster from the pivotal Gothic novel by Mary Shelley. The Forgotten Queen rules the place below, where darkness, rocks, waterfalls, and little particles of light flow along with her movement – all placed deep underwater beyond the vision of the human eye.
An immortal, bloodsucking bombshell – in short, another archetypal character from Gothic fiction: the vampiric figure of a woman. Lilith, the dancer in “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” by Usher, resembles the female vampires from Bram Stoker’s Dracula who try to seduce, drain, and possess Jonathan Harker during his captivity. Yet, this female vampire hunts outside Dracula’s castle. Lilith, a modern party vampire, meets her prey at a Halloween beach party with blended vampiric motifs which help her camouflage, such as bats, candles, and a crypt-like beach house. Rocking her black, leather skinny pants, a choker, ruby red corset, and ragged cape, the coach epitomises a vampire living a modern nightlife. She dances with Alano –a generic partygoer wearing blue jeans with a neon Hawaiian shirt. Lilith, a possessor of demonic powers, manipulates her dancing partner with her blue flame magic. Enchanted and seduced, Alano is drained of his colours and his clothes change from pink and yellow to black and red. Becoming her marionette, Alano dances repeating Lilith’s moves, completely preoccupied with her vampiric presence. Gothic female vampires display both a strong sexual lust and a lust for power. Being a tease, an enchantress, and a dancer, Lilith fits this definition perfectly.
The female characters are the best proof of how Gothic fiction has penetrated the aesthetics of modern culture. The songs presented in Just Dance are rooted in the Gothic tradition; at the same time, they twist and modernise its quintessential elements. The traditional Gothic merges with the modern version of the aesthetic to transgress well-established features and produce a refreshed and contemporary view. The inspiration and factual references to Gothic fiction are illusive and reshaped, but still operative, captivating, and witty. A gloomy mansion turns into a disco, a domestic space metamorphoses into a witchy suite, monstrosity becomes mesmerising, and a vampire hunts on the dancefloor. In other words, binary oppositions of old and new fuse into a spellbinding perspective.
