Waltz with Leo, Brad or Beyonce – or their holograms anyway

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 Thursday.

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 favourite 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.