DancingFUN Inc. is a company that develops and provides IKATARSAL™ to help students who struggle to complete two pirouette turns in ballet. Originally operating as an online ballet school based on Russian ballet pedagogy, the company focuses on the development, manufacturing, and sales of IKATARSAL™ products designed to eliminate instability during relevés. The company is also known as "IKATARSAL™ Lboratory".
Our Mission and Vision
DancingFUN's greatest ambition is to spread IKATARSAL™ worldwide. Its mission, under the concept of "Realizing Dreams from Your Feet," is to improve the physical performance of dancers and athletes suffering from foot problems. They aim for IKATARSAL™ to become a common and essential choice, like eyeglasses, contributing to humanity. They believe this will broaden people's life possibilities and contribute to elevating the entire ballet world.
About the President: Hiroyuki Nagaki
Hiroyuki Nagaki, the representative of DancingFUN Inc., is the developer of IKATARSAL™. While managing his own ballet school, he realized that ballet lessons alone were insufficient for students to make significant progress. His personal experience in osteopathy led him to believe that body conditioning should also be provided, which became the genesis of product development. Nagaki's strength lies in his IKATARSAL™ fitting technique, which involves understanding the sensory aspects of the human body and making fine adjustments tailored to individual feet. He also supervised the Japanese edition of "The Ballerina's Foot," a book by Dr. Denis Kablukov, former chief physician of the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet.
Product Development Background and Commitment
The development of IKATARSAL™ began when Nagaki observed that many ballet students could not complete two pirouette turns.
Discovery of "Ika-Ashi": He noticed that students unable to perform pirouettes would quickly lose balance when standing on one relevé, discovering that individuals whose first, second, and third metatarsal heads were not aligned (referred to as "Ika-Ashi") could not maintain stability.
Joint Research and Publication: Since 2017, joint research with a biomechanics laboratory at a university in Tokyo has been conducted, resulting in three papers presented at international conferences and other venues to date.
Initial Test Success: It was confirmed that simply folding copy paper and placing it under the shorter metatarsal bones remarkably stabilized the relevé, leading to confidence in commercialization.
Challenge of Mass Production: Initially, silicone pads were cut by hand, but with increasing users, the need for mass production arose. Two types of molds costing a total of 1.6 million JPY were required, and funds were raised through crowdfunding. They overcame the crisis of the mold manufacturing factory closing, establishing a mass production system.
Discovery and Solution for "Pseudo-Ika-Ashi": The phenomenon of losing balance when wearing ballet shoes was named "Pseudo-Ika-Ashi," and it was determined to be caused by the ballet shoe sole preventing the first metatarsal bone from properly contacting the floor. The new "Releve Surube ver.3" model will include silicone pads for this "Pseudo-Ika-Ashi" issue.
Nagaki has a strong commitment to the minute details of the product.
Silicone Pads: They pursued the optimal hardness, neither too soft nor too hard, and provide seven types of shapes to accommodate individual metatarsal bone variations. Molding with dies makes it easier to find the optimal combination.
Socks: For wearing under tights during lessons, thin, highly elastic fabric was selected. They successfully developed a new material that lasts three times longer than conventional materials, improving durability. The toe holes and openings are intentionally left raw-cut to minimize discomfort. To prevent silicone slippage, the fabric's stretch direction is specifically designed.
Simplified Fitting: In the new model, the effort of fine-tuning by changing the orientation and contour of two thicknesses of silicone pads is reduced. Optimal fitting is made easier by combining seven shapes for each foot.
Broad Applications and Expert Attention: IKATARSAL™ is used not only for improving ballet pirouettes but also in a wide range of fields such as rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating, soccer, golf, boxing, cheer dance, traditional martial arts, yoga, ballroom dancing, surfing, skiing, walking, and standing work. It also helps alleviate foot discomfort when wearing high heels. It has attracted attention from doctors, physical therapists, Dr. Denis Kablukov, and Deborah Vogel, experts in body conditioning, both domestically and internationally, leading to joint research and cooperation in product dissemination. Users are expanding to professional dancers, including students from Russian ballet schools, rhythmic gymnastics teams, and Olympic figure skating candidates.
