Migration
Waltz with Leo, Brad or Beyonce — or their holograms anyway — in Tokyo
Stars and Stripes
May 3, 2016
Tomoaki Ishizuka, left, and Yurika Yonekura, right, watch the hologram of Japanese skater Yuzuru Hanyu, center, with ballet dancers with their scanned faces attached April 28 at newly opened Hologram Dance Theater at Madame Tussauds in Tokyo. Madam Tussauds in Tokyo is launching an event allowing visitors to virtually join a 3-D world to dance with holograms of celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lady Gaga. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)
Tomoaki Ishizuka, left, and Yurika Yonekura, right, watch the hologram of Japanese skater Yuzuru Hanyu, center, with ballet dancers with their scanned faces attached April 28 at newly opened Hologram Dance Theater at Madame Tussauds in Tokyo. Madam Tussauds in Tokyo is launching an event allowing visitors to virtually join a 3-D world to dance with holograms of celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lady Gaga. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)
Mizuho Shinden watches the hologram of dancers with her face attached, far left, featuring actors Brad Pitt, second left, Leonardo DiCaprio, far right, at the newly opened Hologram Dance Theater at Madame Tussauds in Tokyo. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)
Mizuho Shinden smiles April 28 as she looks at her scanned face at the newly opened Hologram Dance Theater at Madame Tussauds in Tokyo. Madam Tussauds in Tokyo is launching an event allowing visitors to virtually join a 3-D world where they can dance with holograms of celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lady Gaga. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)
Tomoaki Ishizuka, center, and Yurika Yonekura, left, scan their faces April 28 as a staff member, right, guides them through a newly opened Hologram Dance Theater at Madame Tussauds in Tokyo. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)
TOKYO — You can waltz with Leo, pirouette to “Swan Lake” or join Beyonce on the disco floor. Well, your holograms can, at Tokyo’s Madame Tussauds wax museum.
The Tokyo location of the museums known for their life-sized celebrity figures in wax opened a dancing hologram attraction April 28.
Visitors can waltz and disco with Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Marilyn Monroe, or pirouette in a “Swan Lake” ballet with Olympics figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu.
Mizuho Shinden had a dream-come-true experience with two of her favorite celebrities, Monroe and Lady Gaga.
“It looks as though I’m really there, so that’s a strange feeling. But I thought, wow, it’s like a dream to be able to dance with such amazing people," Shinden said.
It was more unsettling for Tomoaki Ishizuka, who found himself dressed in a ballet leotard alongside Hanyu. “I saw myself dancing with other ballerinas, so that was disgusting — but it was disgusting because it looked so real,” said Ishizuka.
Participants get a 3D face scan, which is transposed onto a hologram dancer for the 90-second presentation.
The attraction is one of the ways the centuries-old museum is exploring of interacting with celebrities in a digital age.
Museum General Manager Toshi Endo said the current roster of three dances and six celebrities will expand by midyear.