Audio Ballerinas break through the barriers between music and dance, performance and audience, and technology and tradition.

Maubrey's wearable acoustic systems started back in 1982. The electronic tutu first emerged in 1989, when he started playing around with solar panels. A dancer friend of his visited his studio and remarked on how similar it looked to a tutu.

The first rendition operated on solar panels and created sound based on the dancer's movement and the surrounding light. This allowed for the music production and dance to be created as one unit instead of two separate things.

The next addition involved metal rakes that scraped the ground; being attached to sensors, they created different sounds based on pressure, the texture of surfaces, and speed. Music was therefore created not only by the dancer, but also by the environment.

Then, Maubrey took it a step further: the dancers themselves created, dictated, and controlled what sound was being made. The sensors in their hands made certain sounds based on movements and light. The dancer focused more on the creation of music instead just on the movement with sound being the side effect.

The next generation included samplers and microphones. This allowed for the audience and the environment to create auditory input and for the dancer to record it, replay it, react to it, and change it, thus increasing audience involvement and participation, and removing the distinction between the audience and the stage.

With these iterations, the Ballerinas became less of a solo performance and more of a collaboration. Some collaborators are conscious of being involved but, due to the sensitivity of the microphones, passersby become unknowingly part of the show with their footsteps and their cars, or even by clearing the throat.

The final change in the Tutus was the inclusion of radio receivers powered by solar panels attached to the dancer's head. The receivers pick up actual radio stations and white noise on the basis of the dancer's position in sunlight – thus, the environment is not the only collaborator, but the light itself, partnered with radio waves, becomes a dance partner that the dancer has to react to and work with.