What to Look For:
Soles: The soles of your shoes may be the most important feature. If the
soles grip the floor too much, you can strain or twist your ankles, or
knees, when trying to do turns or spins. If the soles have no grip, and
slide too easily on the floor, you will be constantly fighting the floor on
direction changes, slipping enough strain your leg muscles, or even slipping
enough to fall.
Many shoes for men are very stiff. The way to test this is to try to bend the toe of the shoe up. It doesn't even matter if there are "soft leather" uppers -- if the base and sole of the shoe is stiff -- they will be hard to dance in -- at least for those who want to rise onto the balls of their feet.
Another thing to mention is that if someone finds a shoe with a really "slippery" sole that instead of rejecting it, they might consider it for "carpet" dancing. Carpets can actually be great to dance on (they are cushioned) except that regular shoes "stick" to them and women's heels sometimes get "caught" in them. So to dance on carpet get shoes with hard smooth "slippery" soles and wide heels that won't catch.
Our recommendations, in preferance order, are:
1) Suede leather soles (the soft brushed leather)
2) Hard leather soles, with or without additional "tread" grips
3) Hard plastic/rubber soles with grips, e.g. the grooves and treads
4) Avoid soft rubber, i.e. anything where you can press your thumb into it and
it gives, even a little. Soles like this grip too much and risk doing
serious damage to your knees when you're dancing. (This includes almost all
sneakers, running shoes, athletic shoes, etc.)
5) Avoid soles with a heavy texture, such as bumps, rows of ridges, or
anything that looks like a tire tread (even a well-worn tire tread).
6) A good test is to stand on a hard floor with your weight on the front of
one foot, heel off the ground. Swing your other leg around you, and see how
far you spin. If your spin stops before you make a half to full rotation, or
if the spin feels like you're putting torque on your knees, the soles are
too sticky. (Imagine doing that spin 100 times during an evening. Will your
knees be able to survive it?)
7) Avoid the plastic/hard rubber "imitation leather" soles unless they have
good tread on them; these can be too slippery. A test here is to take one or
two running steps on a hard floor (tile, concrete, or wood), then stop. Did
you slide? If so, you may have trouble with moves that take a strong step in
one direction, stop and go the other way.
Women's Shoes:
There are several additional considerations for women. Avoid
slip-ons or any shoe that comes off too easily. You can wear a "Closed"
shoe, such as Tic-Tac-Toe, "Peggy", or a more "Open" shoe such as the
Capezio Latin Sandal or XStrap Pump. Both of the open shoes have straps that
keep the shoe firmly fixed to the foot. Shoes with open toes, such as the
Capezio XStrap, can put extra pressure on the sides of your feet (e.g.
leading to blisters) if you don't have them fit properly. If they fit well,
this isn't a problem.
Open Heels: To ensure that you don't step off the heel while dancing, you
usually want a full shoe around the heel. You can use an open heel, such as
Showtime's "Nadia", if the straps keep your heel firmly set on the heel of
the shoe, as this one does. Certain kinds of "dressy" shoes rely on such
straps, but they're not secure enough to prevent your foot from stepping off
the heel on quick turns. In many cases, they're really not made for the
twists and torque that we put on them while dancing, and can break in the
middle of a dance! This is especially true of the cheaper shoes of this
style, and seems common in shoes sold at "general" stores with a shoe
department (e.g. Wal-Mart or Shopko).
Heel Height: For "official" ballroom dancing, women wear 3" heels for the
European dances, and 2" heels for the Latin dances. Heels can help in
getting the stretch that we want in the European dances, and to be up on the
toes for the turns and spins we do in all forms of ballroom. We recommend
that women do not wear heels substantially higher than what they are used
to. If you almost never wear shoes with heels, look for a 1" to 1½"
heel. If you're used to heels, go with a 2", or maybe 2½" heel. In
most cases, you'll be doing a variety of dances, and anything higher than
that is inappropriate for some rhythms. Never buy anything more than ½"
higher than heels you've previously worn -- the dance floor is not the place
to be learning how to walk in high heels!
Character Shoes, Ballet Shoes, etc: You can use character shoes for ballroom
dance, e.g. if you already own a pair. Ballet shoes don't get you dancing on
your toes the way that heels do, but if you already own ballet shoes, you
probably already know how to dance on your toes! We've even known people who
swore by their Chinese flats. The critical thing here is the test for the
soles: Not too sticky; not too slippery. Heels help (especially for shorter
women), but how much they help varies from dancer to dancer.
Buying Off the Web: The following companies seem to have good reputations as shoe makers and as
businesses.
Backbay Dancewear
E-Mail and Web Page
Phone: 781-273-3089 Fax: 781-221-5607
10% off shoes; apparel (not including custom wear); CDs & videos; Jewelry
Call for catalog: 1-800-554-2340
Capezio
Best known for their ballet, jazz, and tap shoes, they also have a
good line of shoes that work well for ballroom dancing. Unlike the two links
above, Capezio shoes are also affordable -- it's easy to find good shoes in
the $25-50 range. On the Web at Web Page.
Champion Dance Shoes
E-Mail and Web Page
Phone: 323-874-8704 FAX: 323-656-3256
10% off dance shoes; shoe bags; shoe brushes; replacement soles; CDs
Coast Ballroom Shoes
12420 Monrague St., Unit G, Pacoima, CA 91331
(818) 890-0807 FAX (818) 890-5507
www.coastdanceshoes.com (Web Page)
E-Mail sales@coastdanceshoes.com
Dance Shoes of Atlanta
E-Mail and Web Page
5% discount to Internet USABDA members
Dancing Connections, Inc.
E-Mail and Web Page
Phone: 978-922-7755 FAX: 978-922-5993
10% off all dance shoes (includes custom shoes)
10% off "Sizzling Latin1" video Emerald City Dance Boutique
Dance Naturals
Web Page and located in Florida, suggested by Boise Fred Astaire
Studio franchisee instructor Martha Pohl-Bradford - Martha Pohl-Bradford
Glide Dance Shoes
PO Box 7066, Northridge, CA 91324
(818) 890-8397 FAX - (818) 890-5507 - Harout & Roxane Agopian
E-Mail sales@glideshoes.com
Parti-Time Dance Shoes & Boots
E-Mail and Web Page
Phone: 405-321-4468 FAX: 405-321-0595
10% off in-stock shoes & boots - Werner Kern, Diamant, Angelo Luzion,
Monarca, Coast, Glide, Evenin' Star, Leo, Tic Tac Toe
Showtime Dance Shoes.
They sell "SupaDance" shoes, the top-of-the-line
ballroom dance shoe, as well as other lines. SupaDance is an English
company, but since Showtime is located in Georgia, shipping is both cheaper
and faster. On the Web at Showtime Web Page
The Dance Dresser
E-Mail and Web Page
Phone: 800-774-1106 (order line)
Phone 407-774-1106
Fax: 407-862-4361
5% off dance ballroom dance shoes, jewelry for dancers, practice wear
The Sole Saver
E-Mail and Web Page
Phone: 561-622-8560
Fax: 561-622-4076
NEW! Folding Shoe Brush - 10% discount
Toe To Toe Dance Shoes
E-Mail and Web Page
Toll Free: 877-348-4362
Fax: 810-695-5424
5% discount on shoes & accessories. Angelo Luzio, Bloch, Capezio, Celebrity,
Coast, Dance Naturals, Freed, International, Supadance, TicTacToe. Free
color catalogs.
Tic-Tac-Toe Shoes:
They are a good, affordable dance shoe. The cost for good
ballroom shoes from this brand is about $50, i.e. less than half the cost of
most of the other ballroom brand names (Champion, Coast, Diamant, SupaDance,
Showtime, etc. There are at least three sites on the Web that sell this
brand: Parti-Time Shoes, Back Bay Dancewear, and Promenade Dance Shoppe.
Problem Sizes? One store that pays particular concern to problem sizes, e.g.
extra narrow to extra wide, or feet of two different sizes, is Toe to Toe
Dance Shoes. They also have shoes with extra cushioning. Their prices on
shoes are the standard $100 +, but they have particularly good prices on a
lot of accessories, such as shoe bags, shoe brushes, and other accessories.
Toe To Toe Dance Shoes
E-Mail and Web Page
Toll Free: 877-348-4362
Boise Community Dance Shoe Sources:
Staacks - 3201 N 39th Street - 343-2922 -
Larry and Irene have been carrying
a large line of dance shoes for men and women for over 25 years - initially
for square and round dancing - Coast and Tic Tac Toe and have a varied
selection good for ballroom dancing. Call first as they also sell at NW
conventions and are not always home, especially since Larry retired from BHS
teaching.
Nelson's on State street - mostly ballet and tap, but carry some of the
newer practice sneakers with circular formed soles for spins. They will
special order capezios and other well known brands.
Maysco Dance Supply 1225 McKinney Street [Pat Harris School of
Dance] -375-2727
On Stage Dance/Active Wear - 7091 Overland Road - 377-8009
Payless Shoe Source,
Nothing that I would be willing to call a dance shoe. They did have some
shoes that could do double duty -- reasonable for daily wear, and you could
get away with dancing in them, but not like real dance shoes.
Shopko: Not recommended.
Wal-Mart: Open all the time. Cheap shoes, in both senses of that word. They
had a small selection of danceable shoes, very inexpensive, but most of them
didn't look like they would put up to the strain we put them under for
dancing. However, if you want to see if you can stand a different heel
height, or a shoe of this style, they might at least last long enough so you
can decide if you want to buy a good pair of shoes of this height, or style.
General Department stores - in the Mall
The Bon,Dillards, Mervyns,
Naturalizer, Penneys, Sears, or the Emporium.
For good men's dress shoes with full leather soles, in the range of $62-85,
look for the Dexter and Florsheim brands.
Optional women's shoes - several models with hard rubber soles that look
like they would be comfortable to dance in: Westies, Unlisted, and Mootsie
Tootsie brands. Prices - $25-40, and they have a fairly reasonable range of
heel heights (1 to 2 1/2 inches).