Lets dance /Hi//Ka//Kusi with non-player character Ju/'Hoansi women in Virtual Reality

We present a Virtual Reality (VR) implementation of a traditional Ju/'Hoansi dance called /Hi//ka//kusi. It is a dance of celebration of rain, food, and prosperity, complemented by a song of laughter, which is mostly performed by the women in the community. They are dancing in a circle while throwing a !nara melon (or other objects) to the woman dancing just behind them. Upon request by the Donkerbos community members to create a virtual reality application of the dance, we video-recorded a group of women demonstrating the dance. The videos were used to map people's figures, poses, and movements into 3d graphics and animations. The application runs in a low-poly environment on an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset and uses the in-built, inside-out tracking cameras for the throwing and catching interaction. The VR user becomes part of an immersive experience, catching and throwing while dancing among the non-player character (NPC) Ju/'Hoansi women. The Donkerbos community has, since the development of the prototype, confirmed the VR experience. They agreed that it represents their culture well and only requested for minor changes. Generally, we maintain that the creation of such cultural experiences is promising in regard to safeguarding cultural heritage practices.