At this year’s PAX Prime the Harmonix Community Team received a huge surprise when Dance Central 2’s Glitch and Bodie paid us a visit at our stage! These guys took a lot of care to accurately recreate the fresh outfits donned by their respective characters in Dance Central 2 and received a warm welcome from the crowd as they took the stage to bust out a few moves! We caught up with David Nguyen who represented Hi-Def’s Glitch at PAX on how his amazing cosplay came together.
Nguyen: Dancing was always something that I was interested in, but because I'm not the most confident person, taking classes and dancing in front of other people was too intimidating. When Dance Central was announced and I saw it was developed by Harmonix (I love Amplitude, the old Guitar Hero games and Rock Band) I knew this was going to be a day-one purchase for me. Since my only “dance” experience came from, well, Dance Dance Revolution, it took a bit of time for me to adjust to moving my awkward limbs. I definitely had fun learning how my body moved differently than I thought it did. Watching shows like America’s Best Dance Crew, I always wanted to pop and lock and perform hard and sharp movements – little did I know that I am awful at sharp movements and have an embarrassing knack for moving my hips. The songs that I tend to play more frequently in Dance Central seem to be Angel's songs (like “Temperature” or “King of the Dance Hall”), but I have a secret soft spot for “Galang” and “Maneater.”
Nguyen: It's only been a few years, but I think the reason I started cosplaying was so insignificant that I can't even remember it anymore! Most of the characters I've cosplayed in the past were characters that I shared a similar style with or that I already had the clothing for (Persona 3's Akihiko, Persona 4's Adachi, Trigun's Wolfwood), but my first true cosplay would be my Medic costume from Team Fortress 2.
Nguyen: I actually got really excited when I saw Glitch for the first time. I knew I was going to replace Angel with Glitch as my dancer of choice in Dance Central 2. I think his design is great and I love the aesthetic of Hi-Def’s crew uniform and stage. I wanted to cosplay as Glitch not only because I thought that I'd be able to pull it off (I do my hair like his all the time, actually!), but because I knew Harmonix was going to be at PAX Prime showing off Dance Central 2 and I'm a huge Harmonix fanboy. If there was any time to show my support for Harmonix, it had to be while they were promoting Dance Central 2! Bodie is actually my partner, TJ! We've been together for about three years now and he's been supportive enough to start cosplaying with me starting with his Heavy from Team Fortress 2 to complement my Medic. In the first Dance Central, TJ only really played the levels with robotic moves and he didn't really attach to any characters. When Bodie was revealed in Dance Central 2, he actually liked that there was a bigger, sportier guy as a dancer. He already had most of the clothing to throw together a Bodie costume as well.
Nguyen: The first thing that I got was white cotton webbing. I put some neon green fabric paint all over it and sewed in into suspenders. Then, I painted some socks with yellow fabric paint because yellow socks are – shockingly – hard to find. The fun part began with a plain white t-shirt. I divided each section that I intended to paint with some painter's tape, painting each section one at a time and waiting for it to dry before moving on to another section. To me, it was more time consuming than it was difficult to make. It took me about two weeks to complete, but I think I could have completed it faster if I had paid attention to my painting courses back when I was still in school! Mixing paint is a lot harder than picking a color in Photoshop. I cut a hole in the inner side of an elbow pad, got some nice fabric for the bandana and grabbed TJ's glove from his Heavy costume for the accessories. I wore the red high-top shoes I already owned because of lack of time, but I'd actually like to buy and alter a pair that would be more accurate for next time. I also didn't notice that Glitch wears blue and green contacts in his eyes until I saw the Gamescom trailer, and by then I didn't have enough time to go out and get some. There's always next year!
Nguyen: PAX was the first time I wore it. I mostly had a few reactions of "Oh... you're those guys from that dancing game in the exhibition hall, right?" However, every now and then there'd be a really excited girl wanting to take a picture with me gushing about how much she loved Dance Central. They were adorable! Especially one girl that wanted us to perform moves from “Funky Town” with her.
The best reaction we got was obviously from Harmonix. I thought you guys might have gotten a kick out of it, but I didn't expect such a big, energetic response! [Dance Central Choreographer] Ricardo's enthusiasm certainly put a big smile on my face!
Nguyen: Oh man, I wish I had the abs for Angel's second outfit from the original Dance Central. I know I'm going to take a shot at Glitch's second outfit, whatever it may be.
Keep your browser locked on DanceCentral.com for even more interviews leading up to the launch of Dance Central 2! Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter (@Dance_Central) and become a fan on Facebook (facebook.com/dancecentral) for all the latest news and updates!
