Designer and amateur dancer Lesia Trubat has created a new type of ballet shoe for the high-tech ballerina. Electronic Traces records the foot’s contact with the floor, allowing the dancer to “draw” all of their movements in brush-like strokes.
“E-Traces,” as it is known, starts with a small electronic device affixed to the bottom or side of a dancer’s shoe. The sensors come from Lilypad Arduinos, which can be purchased online and has been used for all kinds of different wearable electronics.
Trubat wove the wires and circuits into the soles of the shoes, and the hardware detects the pressure on the shoe as well as the force of motion from the dancer. A computer program then translates the data and sends it to a custom mobile app program. The result is a beautiful constellation of delicate “paint” marks that look almost as graceful as the dancers themselves.
The ballet shoes were designed by Trubat as a degree project for ELISAVA design school in Barcelona, Spain.
“The user can view all the moves made in video format, extract images and even print them. Dancers can interpret their own movements and correct them or compare them with the movements of other dancers,” Trubat says in her design proposal.
Turbot hopes the shoes will be able to be applied to other dance disciplines, not just for singular dancers but as an aid for entire dance classes. Dancers will be able to view their movements and then be able to analyze them for precision. They also provide an additional visual layer to dance performances, making dance performances even more aesthetic than they already are.
Check out the video below to see this dazzling new idea in action:
