alain’s dance blog

When I grew up, I was encouraged to take up basketball. The reason for this was simple. As a sport, it was cheap to start - all you needed were a good pair of shoes.

As the story goes, I didn’t fall in love with basketball. Instead, I was drawn into fencing, and fenced competitively throughout my high school years. Let’s just say I’m glad my parents supported me and paid for all the equipment I needed.

These days, my main passion is dancing, and like basketball, it doesn’t take an expensive FIE-approved sword blade to enjoy. So my question of the day is this -what shoes do you wear for dancing?

My personal preference: my Adidas Rod Laver’s, designed by the 60’s tennis pro, and adopted by footbaggers worldwide today.

The common concern with rubber soles is that they stick to the floor. However, mine are worn down, so the sole isn’t sticky anymore. I like them because they give me some grip when I dance to faster tempos.

For those looking for options, here are some choices:

1. Your everyday shoes (sneakers or dress shoes)
2. Runners with do-it-yourself additions to lessen the traction (duct-tape, suede)
3. Hard leather sole dress shoes (store brand or Aris Allens)

The cheapest solution to prevent knee injuries is to buy a pair of flat soled shoes (at Payless Shoes in McGill metro for example) and to get a cobbler to glue on a leather sole. Here are the fabrics by order of traction: brushed suede, soft leather and hard leather.

Note: suede will become as slippery as soft leather over time. You need a wire brush to revive the nap in suede to bring back the grip.

Read what other dancers have to say about chroming your shoes at yehoodi.com

This entry was posted on July 25, 2007 at 3:23 pm and is filed under dance shoes, About the dance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.