Ceroc moves fox hi-tech equipment

4:10pm Wednesday 30th July 2008

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The moves of a troupe of Oxford dancers have proved too technical to be mapped by sophisticated technology.

Experts at Oxford Brookes University's human performance centre had hoped the innovative Xsens motion sensor system could be used to find out whether top ceroc jive dancers were in-sync with their partners.

The research followed successful trials on horseriders training for the Beijing Olympics.

But after hours of analysis, the researchers admitted their moves were just too complicated - and are returning to the dancers to get them to simplify it.

Dancer and Brookes physiotherapy researcher Charlie Winward said: "We have got the graphs out, but with the dancing we are finding it difficult to read the signals.

"There are three dimensions - there is the lead and follow, there is the music and we also need to get a pictorial representation of what they are doing."

Videoing horse riders alongside the motion sensor system has proved very successful - with researchers able to pinpoint if the rider was controlling the horse, or if the animal was in charge.

But the more complicated manoeuvres of ceroc showed not just the up and down motions of horseriding, but side to side, round and round, spins, turns, wiggles, twizzles and drops.

Now the team are planning to return to The Regal, in Magdalen Road, and get the same 10 couples who volunteered to take part in June to perform a series of set moves to one specified track. Patrick Esser, who is studying for his PhD, was confident the new technology, which is also being used for patients with neurological conditions, would yield results with further work.

He said: "I think this might a great way to give feedback to people dancing."