The dodge step, 闪身步 (shǎn shēn bù) in Chinese, is a basic move from Anhui Flower Drum Dance (huagudeng), a folk dance on China's national intangible cultural heritage list. In September 2026 an old dance-class video of it resurfaced: a teacher in a white T-shirt and grey trousers in a plain blue studio stands perfectly still, then suddenly dodges to one side as if something just flew at him, drops into a lunge and snaps back to center. Imitations and remixes passed 600 million views within weeks, with singers, athletes and plenty of ordinary people trying it.
Some of the funniest versions do not star a person at all. A cat standing on its hind legs, staring blankly at the camera and then lurching sideways into a lunge is the version people keep forwarding.
This template makes that version from one photo. Upload your cat or dog and it takes the teacher's place in the same studio, standing upright with its own face, fur and tail, and dances the routine beat for beat. People work too: choose Person, upload a full-body photo and you do the dodge step in your own clothes, opening close-up included.
The result is a 9-second 4:3 clip, ready to post or drop into a group chat. Doctors in China have warned that the sharp twist is hard on knees and lower backs if you copy it cold, so letting your pet do it is the safer option. Use a clear, well-lit photo, and only use photos of people who are happy to star in it.
For the full walkthrough, including how to pick the photo and the failed clips we ran into while building this template, read the blog post: How to make a dodge step video.