Technology and ballet is a strange combination, but when they meet, the results can be beautiful. Designer Lesia Trubat has created Electronic Traces, pointe shoes that sense a dancer's movements and sends them to a smartphone. A mobile app then visualizes these movements by drawing the dancer's leaps, spins and glides on the screen.

Trubat designed the ballet shoes as her degree project for the design school ELISAVA in Barcelona, Spain. She states in her portfolio that the idea for the shoes was "based on capturing dance movements and transforming them into visual sensations through the use of new technologies." The shoes look very similar to regular pointe shoes, but with some technological additions. Lilypad Arduinos, which is hardware that detects the pressure and movement of the shoes as they make contact with the floor, are attached to the shoes. Signals are then sent from the shoes to a smartphone, where dancers can look at their moves and compare them with others. When synchronicity is necessary in a performance, the app can show the slight differences between dancers.

Electronic Traces could possibly be used to teach dance, and the technology could be used for styles of dance other than ballet. It also helps us to see dance in a different way. Dance can be considered an art in its own right, but the app creates works of art itself, showing the flowing lines as a dancer twirls across the floor. It makes us appreciate the beauty of dance even more.

Photo Credit: Lesia Trubat