Instant Party: Home Made Modular Light Up Dance Floor!

Sometimes Rap Videos Do not Live in a Perfect World

Although we all know that DMX was totally cool in 1999, his light up dance-floor in the music video Whats My Name was out of this world. The circular dance-floor was comprised of concentric rings that lit up in a chasing pattern. Although the solution was a drastic improvement on the classic Saturday Night Fever dance-floor, it still had room for improvement.

Modularity Is Your Friend!

To Improve on the DMX floor, and to make it transportable and reconfigurable, it needed to be modular. Although Brian Witlin, Stanford Product Designer and co-founder of Grooveking.com, initially thought to make a circular dancefloor with pie shaped pieces, he found having a more unique geometry with various sized trapezoids was a better solution. (click image above to see video of dancefloor)

A 12 Foot Diameter Light Up Dance Floor to a 60 Foot Light Up Modeling Runway

His final design comprises of 17 pieces. The geometry of these sections allows the 12 foot diameter light up dancefloor to be reconfigured into stage and even a 60 + foot runway for those breakout dance offs. The pieces utilize a reconfigurable electrical daisy chain undercarriage that can be connected to any piece from any side. This allows for a four channel chaser box to have a nearly infinite chasing pattern possibilities when plugged into the dancefloor.

What is the Point?

The Grooveking project, found at Grooveking.com, is a tee shirt site featuring a group of progressive product designers, architects, and graphic designers. Our mission is to uplift the human spirit through thoughtful imagery and humor. Our side mission is to make kick ass products that do the same. We do not take donations, but will be happy if you buy some of our shirts to fund future fun projects like this one. Go to Grooveking.com. Much Love!

Update on This Post

We have recently been featured on the Make Magazine website for this post! I would like to apoligize to those who were looking for a true "how - to" on making your own modular light up dancefloor. Stay tuned, however, I will try to put one together. Thanks for visiting!

The Most Amazing Product Ever! How can it only be $4.99?

I want to tell you about an amazing product that we found. It was so amazing, that it inspired the initiation of our grooveking.com news blog.

Just this past Saturday, I happened to be going by Toys R Us, and wondered what type of toys there were in there. Do not even start with me! I know you are wondering why would I be going to Toys R Us. I mean, I had been there so long ago that I almost forgot what it was like to be a kid in Toys R Us.

I was walking down this isle and I saw the most amazing product: The Body Groovz Super Starz Karaoke Dance Mat and Competition Machine. I nearly passed out when I saw all of the features of this product:

-Ultra High Tech Touch Sensitive Dance Mat (UHTTSDM)
-Two Karaoke ready microphones with built in echo and tempo control
-Additional cable for competition linking of two units
-State-of-the-art 7.5 volt AC adapter
-Patented Simply Connect© One Cable TV Connector
-Old School Nintendo-Like Cartridge Song Sampler

If you were to walk into Radio Shack TOMORROW, you wouldn't even find a not-so-high-tech 7.5 Volt AC adapter for less than $10. Make that $16.99. I checked! Go to radioshack.com if you don't believe me! But guess what? This freakin off-the-wall Body Groovz Super Starz Karaoke Dance Mat and Competition Machine with all the bells and whistles was only $5. Holy S&@#! Make that $4.99 and keep the penny!

I am sure that you have heard the phrase, "You pay for what you get." But this time, I paid for what I got, but I got a whole lot more! When I opened the box, I pulled out the ultra shiny Ultra high-tech Touch Sensitive Dance Mat (UHTTSDM), attached the patented Simply Connect© One Cable TV Connector, plugged in the state-of-the-art 7.5 volt AC adapter, attached the two super-controler microphones with echo feature,and clicked the on screen.
Sometimes crappier is better. And when I say crappy, I mean 8 bit old school Nintendo graphics crappy. As you can see on the screen, the graphics sucked! This made the product TWICE as cool! Make that 3.14X10^23 times as cool! Who wants Halo quality graphics for an interactive dance mat/karaoke machine. I want traditional crappy karaoke graphics with loud horrific, oversaturated colors and silly synthesized songs to dance to. Just for kicks I tried out the echo effect on the microphones. I sounded like I was in a 6 foot tin can....Amazing!!
I clicked on the dance mode and selected easy, because, I wanted to rock the house with my mad dancing skillz. When I clicked on the next screen to pick the song I was to dance to, I was shocked to find a selection of over 6 songs including:

-Baby One More Time
-I Want it That Way
-Larger Than Life
-It's Gonna Be Me
-I Believe I Can Fly
-And a whole lot more chart toppers from 2000 that I can't remember off-hand

Let me just say, I cranked on that thing for over an hour and probably burned off over 30 calories! The best part of it was that the songs were crappy synthesized versions of the songs which allowed me to reach peak jack-ass-dom as a flipped on on the dance mat. Overall, I give this product a 11 out of 10!

I can get into all of the intricacies of my mad skillz, but all I have to say is this:Just try to beat my high score of 8300. I will competition link my Body Groovz Super Starz Karaoke Dance Mat and Competition Machine to your Body Groovz Super Starz Karaoke Dance Mat and Competition Machine and whoop you a new one.

To all you suckas out there who think you are going to get your hands on one of these, you are sadly mistaken. I plan to travel the country, make that the world, to gobble up every last Body Groovz Super Starz Karaoke Dance Mat and Competition Machine so you will have to go through ME to get one! Be on the lookout for these things going for nearly $6.00 on eBay. Till next time. Come visit the rest of our site at www.grooveking.com for the coolest tee shirts on this side of Texas. This is Groovemaster, signing off.

No, This Dude IS Huge in Japan!

Grooveking announced today that they have selected one of the new faces of Grooveking:

Internationally known super-model, Yusuke Miyashita.

Yusuke (pronounced "Use - K") has been on the modeling circuit for quite some time. Although he has been known internationally (primarily Japan), he only recently broke into the United States scene with his cover page appearance on the recently released "body issue" for Hyphen Magazine.

Brian Witlin (aka bbwslims), founder of Grooveking said today, "We are excited to be working with Yusuke for the prospects of a greater international presence. We think Yusuke's core values, look, and personality match our quest to lift the human spirit. We look forward to working with him for many years to come."

Yusuke, also known for his development of "Green-friendly" products is a successful and well known product designer. His recent collaborated with Synaptics products (inventors of the iPod scrolly wheel thingy) has given Synaptics a new outlook for thier future product development.

Yusuke is a "Mover and Shaker" kind of guy. Unlike most internationally known super-models. Yusuke will change the world through his great work in all avenues he pursues.

Stay tuned for more Grooveking news coming atcha! Groovemaster out.

It's Official! Full on Site Collaboration with Scott Patt

Yes it is true, after many weeks of rumors, we are officially announcing a full on site collaboration with Scott Patt. As you probably know, Scott Patt is one of the leading artist/graphic/product designers in the world. Although his artwork hangs on walls from Japan to Portland, he has recently become extremely well known for his revolutionary fashion-forward designs in footwear.

Grooveking's founder Doug, or more well known as "Mr. Nice" said in a press conference on Wednesday, "We are excited to be working with Scott. Scott and I have influenced and supported each others work for quite some time. It was a natural fit to have Scott affiliated with Grooveking. Stay tuned for great stuff to come!"

After a successful run of Scott's "Human Nature" Nike Terminator shoe, his unique style and popularity has given him legendary status in the design world - marveled by many. Although the release dates have not been disclosed, Scott was recently asked to design a one piece laser etched Nike Dunk celebrating his "Weapons of Mass Production" series artwork. Sources say that the collectors market has already embraced the few samples made pushing the market value of the shoes to nearly $1000. Grooveking.com will be releasing limited edition shirts to match the shoe release designed by Scott Patt in the weeks to come. Although his shirts are not orderable yet, some of the original "Weapons of Mass Production" artwork shirts are available for viewing under the Scott Patt section of grooveking.com. We cannot disclose any release dates for the Scott Patt line yet, but stay tuned for future news on the subject. We congratulate him on his recent success heading up global design at Converse.

In the mean time, check out our limited edition grand opening grooveking shirts at grooveking.com. Thanks to everyone who has supported us getting up and running. We look forward to lifting the human spirt through our clothes.

Grooveking.com Officially Open For Business!

Hello everyone. We would like to thank everyone for visiting. Today (October, 5 2005) Grooveking officially opened for business. So far so good with the site. Although we received more hits than ever before, we are confident that we won't crash on the first day. Lets all keep our fingers crossed. We would like to give special thanks to everyone who voted on the final designs, as well as Clement Valla our master 3d designer for an excellent execution of the site. Stay tuned for more info to come and visit grooveking.com to see it all in action.

Grooveking: Sighting and Defined in Urban Dictionary

It has been recently brought to the attention of the creators of the Grooveking News Blog, that through general use of the word Grooveking, a new entry to the Urban Dictionary has been created. Grooveking, while used frequently in the breakdancing world, has recently received official slang status and was entered only a few weeks ago. Although its earliest known references were from the mean streets of Philly, it has made its way across the country and defined as the following:

1. Grooveking
1. A monarch of a major territorial unit; esp: one whose interaction is harmonious with their surroundings such as their friends, a favorite watering hole, the internet and like groovedoms. 2. One who grooves on 3. A groovatron 4. One who can rock a suicide windmill while breakdancing - a master breakdancer. 5. One who has mastery of grooves; a dj, dancer, or a person participating in general groovedom. 6. One who carries a boombox weighing more than 37 lbs on their shoulder.

That dude can kick it with that boombox. He's got slick threads, style, and is the master of his grooves. He is a grooveking.


As noted in the definition, the general reference to Grooveking has been expanded to pay homage to a dj with mad skillz or a person who has the style to rock a massive boombox (a statement against the over-simplification and sterilization of modern electronics; ie. the iPod). This image shows a killer example of groove-kingdom in every way. Massive boombox, the classic birds with airplane tee from the grooveking website, and general over the top attitude. By the way check out that dude with that ultra grey jumpsuit = grooveking supreme.

Although excited about the entry, we hope that its definition does not limit our thousands of readers in any way. We encourage additions and future modifications to the definition, to more clearly express the true meaning of grooveking in the now. We would like to thank everyone for sending us celebrity pictures with grooveking shirts. Keep them coming and we can dedicate a whole post to the subject.