GPS Bodies: tech-dance performance aims to help youth navigate dating apps

The world of mobile dating can be both exciting and scary, especially for youth.

That’s why performance artist Marcel Williams Foster wants to build an app that can show LGBT youth how to use dating apps like Grindr and Tinder in a safe way. Foster’s first attempt at that is a tech-infused dance performance during Philly Tech Week that he’s calling GPS Bodies.

GPS Bodies debuted last Sunday to a sold-out crowd. Its next and final performance is Saturday, April 12 and Foster hopes that some civic hackers — and potential collaborators — will be in the crowd.

GPS Bodies is a Twitter-aided scavenger hunt where each tweet results in a different dance move for the dancers waiting for audience members at the end of the hunt.

The performance is a “first draft” of the app that Foster eventually hopes to build. He’s looking for civic hackers and mobile developers who would be interested in his app project and hopes they’ll attend the Saturday performance to see what the project is about.