Let's Dance Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Description and Goal of the Game
• Components
  • Elements of the Cards
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Dance!
  • Step on Toes!
  • Catch Your Breath!
• Concepts
  • Dance Floor
  • Choreographed Sequence
  • Sit One Out
• End of the Game
• Score
  • Flourishes
  • Choreographies
• Types of Cards
  • Basic Moves
  • Floorwork
  • YMCA
  • The Conga Line
    • The End of the Conga Line
  • Spin
    • Risk of Falling When You Play Spin Cards
    • Suffering a Fall
  • Euphoria
  • Dance Fever
  • Step on Toes

Description and Goal of the Game

In Let's Dance, you will dance your cards. You play them in front of yourself to create your Dance Floor with a series of Choreographed Sequences. You can play different dance steps, interrupt another player's rhythm by "accidentally" stepping on their toes, and/or draw new cards for your hand. The game approaches its conclusion when someone shows the Party's Over card, which then triggers the very last round.

Play your moves wisely to achieve the maximum benefit from your dance steps. Make combinations or interrupt the dances of the other players in order to gain as many points as you can. The player who has the most points at the end of the party is the winner!

Components

111 cards:

• 28 basic moves: 7 "Get down", 7 "The Cowboy", 7 "The Robot", 7 "The Shuffle"
• 18 Floorwork: 6 "Backspin", 6 "The Worm", 6 "Kneeslide"
• 20 YMCA: 5 "Y", 5 "M", 5 "C", 5 "A"
• 10 "Spin"
• 11 "Conga Line"
• 4 "Euphoria"
• 8 "Dance Fever"
• 10 "Step on Toes"
• 1 "Party's Over"
• 1 First Player card

Elements of the Cards

• a: Illustration
• b: Score/ability

The Types of Cards section below explains how each individual card works.

Setup

1. Set aside the Party's Over card and shuffle the rest of the deck with all the cards indicated for the number of players in the game. (In 4- to 6-player games, include the cards with the 4+ icon. If there are just 2 or 3 players, leave them in the box.)
2. Draw 10 cards randomly from the deck. Without looking at any of them, add the Party's Over card to them and shuffle those 11 cards. Then put all 11 on the bottom of the deck.
3. After this, deal 5 cards to each player. These will be your starting hands.
4. Put the deck in the center of the table.
5. Count out 5, 6, 7, 8... and whoever busts the most impressive dance pose will be the first player (give that player the First Player card). If you prefer not to reveal your dance moves just yet, you can randomly select a first player.

How to Play

The players take turns going counterclockwise around the table. During your turn, you will carry out one of the following actions in order to create your Dance Floor and Choreographed Sequences:

Dance!

Play 1 to 3 cards of the same type on your Dance Floor. This group of cards may also include a "Euphoria" card or a "Dance Fever" card. When you are finished, draw one card from the deck and add it to your hand.

Remember that if you play 2 or 3 cards, you will reduce the number of cards in your hand for the next turn, since you will only draw 1 card.

Step on Toes!

Play 1 Step on Toes card on the Dance Floor of another player to interrupt their Sequence and steal their cards (see the Step on Toes card, below).

Catch Your Breath!

You must choose between these two options in order to catch your breath and recover your energy:

• Replenish: If you have less than 5 cards in your hand, you can replenish cards without dancing. This means you cannot play any cards, and then draw cards until you have 5 cards in your hand again.
• Renew: If you want to renew your hand, then play one card face-down on your Dance Floor, discard the cards that you do not wish to keep from your hand, and then draw cards from the deck until you have a hand made up of 5 cards total.

Remember: At no time and for no reason can there ever be more than 5 cards in your hand.

Once you have completed your action, it is then the turn of the player to your right.

You can overlap the cards on your Dance Floor in order to save space on the table. The only reason the examples shown in the rulebook are presented with them separate and next to one another is simply to make the examples easier to explain.

Concepts

Dance Floor

All of the cards you have on the table in front of you together are called your "Dance Floor". After you play your first card, you will add new cards to its right. Once played, you cannot change the positions of your cards.

Choreographed Sequence

A group of cards on your Dance Floor that is not interrupted by any face-down card (whether a Step on Toes or any other card).

Example 1: a Dance Floor with no face-down cards is a single Sequence (Sequence 1).

Example 2: a Dance Floor with a face-down card in the middle is split into two Sequences (Sequence 1 before the face-down card, Sequence 2 after it).

Sit One Out

On your Dance Floor, each card placed face-down represents a moment when you stop dancing. This interrupts the Choreographed Sequence in progress, but you do not lose the value of any of the cards you played before stopping. You must stop dancing and sit one out when someone makes you do so or when you fall while doing a Spin. However, you can also choose to stop in order to renew your hand.

Example: a Choreographed Sequence interrupted by the fifth card, which is face-down. None of the cards before that card lose their value.

Example: the dancing stopped in the third card, because otherwise it would exceed the 3-card limit for Spins. So, place the first revealed card face-down (see the Spin card below).

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered when someone draws the Party's Over card. This player must show it to the others, discard it, and without counting it as a normal card, continue to draw cards as usual. The round currently in play continues to its conclusion, and then, one more final round is played (ending with the player to the left of the first player—this means that all players will always have a final turn before the end). In the last turn, players do not draw cards from the deck.

If the deck runs out for any reason, shuffle the discard pile and form a new deck with those cards.

If a player shows the Party's Over card after they were affected by a Step on Toes card, then play as if the Party's Over card was shown during the active player's turn, meaning the player who played the Step on Toes card.

This card does not grant any points. It only triggers the end of the game.

Score

Once all players have played their final turn, each player adds up their score as follows. (Scan the QR on the First Player card to count the game's score.)

Flourishes

• Dance Machine: The player who achieved the longest Choreographed Sequence of all (the most cards danced consecutively without a break) earns 5 points. If there is a tie for this number, both (or all) tied players receive the flourish reward.
• Big Finish: Each player who finished their Dance Floor with a Dance Fever card earns 5 points.
• Party Pooper: The player who stopped dancing (cards face-down on your dance floor) the most often loses 5 points. If there is a tie, all tied players receive this penalty.

Choreographies

Follow the indicated order to score each of your Dance Floor moves.

The player with the most points wins the game. If there is a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Types of Cards

Basic Moves

These are those dance steps that will never let you down, no matter what song is playing. These cards grant direct points to the player (the value printed on each card; for example, "The Shuffle" is worth 3 points).

Floorwork

Leave them all breathless with your insane moves on the floor! These cards grant points for every combination of Floorwork cards on your Dance Floor (they do not need to be adjacent to one another, but each card can only be counted as part of a single combination). Score all the combinations you are able to make, in the following manner:

• 1 Floorwork card: 1 point
• Combination of 2 different Floorwork cards: 3 points
• Combination of 3 different Floorwork cards: 6 points

YMCA

These cards grant you points if you are able to dance all 4 letters of the song (Y, M, C, and A) on your Dance Floor.

If you have all 4 letters in any order, whether or not they were played consecutively and even if they are not in the same Choreographed Sequence, you get 10 points. If you are able to get all 4 letters in the right order, you earn 15 points instead. They just need to be on your Dance Floor in the right order, they don't have to be together.

The Conga Line

A classic! Jump in the line and shake your hips.

The value of the Conga Line is determined "collaboratively". So, the score of each card within the Conga Line is equal to the number of players that contributed to that Conga Line.

Every time someone plays a Conga Line card, the next player can only perform one of the following actions in their turn:

• Play a Conga Line card and draw a card from the deck.
• Sit one out. To do so, the player puts a card face-down on their Dance Floor to show they stopped dancing, and that brings an end to the Conga Line. This player does not draw any card and that player will play the next turn. From that point on, the game continues as usual.

Note: If nobody continues the Conga Line, the value of the card of the player who started the line is 1.

If the Conga Line comes all the way back to the player who started it, the Conga Line comes to an end (see The End of the Conga Line below). The player who started the Conga Line plays their turn as usual (and can even start a new Conga Line).

The End of the Conga Line

Once the Conga Line ends, each player who took part in the Conga Line places their Conga Line cards on their own Dance Floor. These cards are placed above the rest of the cards in the Choreographed Sequence in accordance with the number of Conga Line cards that were played in a row (up to a maximum of 6 in a 6-player game) as a reminder of the number of points that Conga Line card is worth at the end of the game. The player will go back to the normal alignment of cards below when the next card is played on their Dance Floor. Then, the game continues as usual, starting with the turn of the player who Sat One Out and stopped the Conga Line.

Example: in this case, 3 Conga Line cards were played, so each card will score 3 points. The card after the Conga Line will line up in the same manner on the right, so your Dance Floor returns to its original level.

Spin

You can't win if you don't Spin! These cards grant players points for each individual Spin or combination of consecutive Spins, up to a maximum of 3 Spins in a row, but only so long as you beat the risk of falling. You can play Spin cards in the following manner:

• One by one, either doing a lone Spin on your turn or accumulating and strengthening a Spin that you played in the previous turn to increase the value of the Spin.
• Playing several Spin cards on your Dance Floor in a single turn, up to the maximum combination of 3 Spin cards.

Spin cards score for each set that appears on your Dance Floor, regardless of whether there is 1, 2, or 3 Spin cards in a row. However, you can play as many Spins on your Dance Floor as you want.

• 1 Spin card: 2 points
• 2 Spin cards: 5 points
• 3 Spin cards: 9 points

Risk of Falling When You Play Spin Cards

Whether a classical pirouette, a modern turn, or the whirling of a dervish, a Spin is a grand move, but when you shoot for the stars, there is a risk of falling. Playing a Spin card always carries the risk of losing your balance and shamefully ending up on the floor. When you play 1 or more Spin cards in a turn, before putting them on your Dance Floor, reveal the same number of cards from the deck one at a time to find out whether you fall (this is described below). If you do fall, stop revealing cards from the deck.

Suffering a Fall

You suffer a fall if, when the cards from the deck are revealed, any of the following happens:

• Stumble: If a "Step on Toes" card appears, you have fallen. Do not continue revealing cards.
• Dizzy: When drawing cards to see if you fall, add the number of Spin cards that have been revealed to the number of Spin cards you are playing on your Dance Floor. If the sum is equal to or greater than 4, you lose your balance and fall. Do not reveal any more cards.

If you fall, you must do the following:

1. Place the first card you revealed face-down on your dance floor and discard the rest of the revealed cards.
2. Discard all the "Spin Cards" you wanted to add to your dance floor.
3. In order to complete your turn, draw 1 card from the deck as usual.

Example: Clara plays a combination of 2 Spin cards on her Dance Floor and must turn over 2 cards from the deck. She first reveals a basic Floorwork card, and then a Step on Toes card: too bad! She didn't make the spin! Clara must turn over the first card that she revealed and discard the rest of the cards (the revealed card and the Spin cards played).

If you overcome the risk of falling, you must:

1. Keep and/or add your Spin cards on your Dance Floor.
2. Discard all the cards you revealed for the risk of falling.
3. In order to complete your turn, draw 1 card from the deck as usual.

Note on the risk of falling:

• 1 Spin card (low risk): It is impossible for you to fall due to getting dizzy.
• 2 Spin cards (moderate risk): You could fall due to getting dizzy, if both cards revealed from the deck are Spin cards.
• 3 Spin cards (high risk): Out of the 3 cards revealed, you only need 1 to be a Spin card and you will fall.

Euphoria

You know that feeling when the beat hits you and you go whirring up to the next level and feel like you can't go any higher! The Euphoria card does not have any value on its own, but you can play it during your turn with other types of cards. When you do, it gives you 1 point for each following card you play until the end of that Choreographed Sequence.

You can only have 1 Euphoria card in each Choreographed Sequence.

After playing a Euphoria card, the following cards in the Sequence score an additional +1 until the Sequence is interrupted. The example shows a case in which 3 cards have this bonus.

Remember that a Choreographed Sequence ends when you stop dancing and sit one out, as indicated by the placement of a face-down card on your Dance Floor, regardless of whether you voluntarily choose to sit one out or if you are forced to by a Step on Toes card or a fall when trying to perform a Spin.

Dance Fever

There is no better way to finish off a great routine than with a grand final pose! You can play this card during your turn together with cards of any other type. Dance Fever doubles the value of the Basic Move card that is just before it OR the value of the Spin card or cards just before it. If you do not combine Dance Fever with either of these card types, its value is zero points. Dance Fever can also grant a BIG FINISH flourish, which awards 5 additional points to any player who finishes the party with this move as the last card on their Dance Floor.

Examples of scoring the Dance Fever card:

• Spin + Spin: 5 points; + Dance Fever: 10 points
• Spin + Spin + Spin: 9 points; + Dance Fever: 18 points
• "The Shuffle": 3 points; + Dance Fever: 6 points

Step on Toes

The Step on Toes card has a value of zero. To play a Step on Toes card, carry out these steps:

1. Place the Step on Toes face-down in the current Choreographed Sequence of another player of your choice. This will end their Sequence, but they can start another on their next turn.
2. Without looking, draw 2 cards randomly from the hand of the player you have selected. Keep 1 of those cards and discard the other (if the player only has 1 card, you keep that and discard nothing).
3. The player who got stepped on draws 2 cards from the deck and keeps both (even if before being stepped on the player only had 1 single card in their hand).