How do Netflix’s Dance Monsters contestants hide their true identities? Behind-the-scenes explained ahead of new episodes premiere

Netflix’s CGI dance competition Dance Monsters has aired three episodes so far and will drop two more on December 23, followed by the final two on December 30.

The competition features amateur dancers who perform in front of an audience and judges who are unaware of the contestants’ true identities, as they use technology to disguise themselves as monsters. The dancers are backstage while their CGI avatars perform on-stage.

The ongoing show’s synopsis reads as:

"In this feel-good competition, amateur dancers disguised as motion capture monsters bring their best moves, hoping to wow our panel of judges and win $250,000. Ne-Yo, Lele Pons, and Ashley Banjo serve as judges. Ashley Roberts serves as host."

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Dance Monsters technology explained ahead of the new episodes

Netflix’s Dance Monsters features 15 amateur dancers who have given themselves a stage avatar with the help of CGI technology due to which they won't perform on-stage in reality.

The dancers will be backstage while their character’s holograms bring their moves to the stage. As the show progresses, viewers will get to know more and more about the performers, such as their stories, obstacles, and how they overcame them.

Dance Monsters fans have different theories about how the show functions, with one Reddit user believing that the audience and the judges see the dancers “hooked up” in the costume and the cameras show the AI. They added:

"When the performer starts they show a quick side by side of them in a sound stage in the costume hooked up and make it seem like the dance was pre recorded."

While on BBC's The One Show, the show’s host Ashley Roberts stated that the experience is “wild and wonderful.” She added that there are humans who are hooked up to CGI and it’s purely based on how they dance.

She further added:

"What’s great about this is that they become monsters and so they are not judged on where they came from, what their age is, what they look like."

Dance Monsters provides amateur dancers a chance to live their dancing dreams without worrying about their insecurities and other things holding them back. Nobody knows who the monsters are and therefore, nobody can judge them for anything, other than what they bring to the stage.

In the trailer released for the show, one contestant spoke about his CGI avatar and said that a funny one-eyed alien is what it took for them to believe in themself. Another stated that they get to be the “superhero” version of themself on the dance show.

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More about the show

Competing in Dance Monsters for a grand prize of $250,000 includes Beti, a purple Yeti from Kansas, and Marsha, a marshmallow whose human is a former Miami Heat dancer who is now a mom and a dance teacher.

Joining them is Jam, a red avatar with a fedora, glasses, and fingerless gloves, followed by Peaches, an orange hybrid between a cat and a bear whose human is a mechanical engineer.

Jellifer, the sporty jellyfish lady’s human is a 42-year-old backup dancer and has performed for various artists, including popstar Britney Spears. Other monsters who are appearing in Dance Monsters include Rocky, Flame, Roberta, Grummy, Chester, Candy, Slink, Darcy, Ferg, and Hammer.