My Ballroom Dance Shoes

No matter how well or how badly I dance, my mission out on the dance floor with a partner who has consented to dance with me is to provide them with enjoyment from our brief dance encounter. That objective should be mutual. If you have any other mission out on the dance floor in a social dance situation, review your motives. You are not out there to prove how wonderful you are, how marvelous you look or how much better you are than your partner. In a social dance situation you are dancing with and for your partner. There is a time and place for learning and it is not in the middle of a social dance floor during a social dance, even if it is requested! Refrain from doing it. Consider it as being rude. Very rude. If your new partner’s dancing is not suitable to you it is necessary that you prevail through to the end of the dance and say, “Thank you!” It is not your obligation to give her (him) a critique of their dancing ability from the dance you just experienced, no matter how bad you might feel it was.
Competitions training, seminars, mutual help sessions where everyone is there for the sole purpose of learning or improving are quite another case. It is understood that in those identifiable learning situations you are invited to offer gentle and constructive criticism to your partner. Tell them about the necessity of wearing ballroom dancing shoes while out on the floor. If you are not capable of this sort of tender, gentle & constructive criticism, let others who are better equipped handle it.

“Do not teach on the dance floor.” Men, it a breach of social dancing etiquette to presume that just because you lead, you know more. Ladies - do not presume to critique a guy’s lead/style/interpretation of the music or judgment. This is social dancing, not practice. If and only if, the lady (or gentleman) requests it, an area off the floor may be used to talk the lady through the step. If you can’t talk her through it, you don’t understand it well enough to teach it! “If you are the type that is open to criticism, ask other dancers to help you with your dancing. Perhaps they see or feel something that you do not. It is okay to talk during a dance and you might learn something valuable at the same time other than where the person is from.” There are some people who have no plans of ever taking lessons. These people depend on sensitively made suggestions, informal intermission time lessons, and experience to become better dancers. Suggest they get a  pair of ballroom dance shoes for a more comfortable dance on the floor. Dance is a marvelous from of social interaction. It can make you many friends - or it can isolate you from the very people you would like to know. Here are some rules of the dance floor:

• Don’t teach someone on the dance floor unless they ASK you to do so.. (Un-asked for advice is not only bad manners - it is unacceptable behavior.)
• Don’t criticize a partner no matter how much you would like to. (Your job is to make the dance FEEL better from YOUR side. Just like LIFE the only person we can really change is ourselves.)
• “Don’t criticize *yourself* out loud no matter how much you’d like to”. It is not enjoyable to have a partner with whom I’ve just had a blast dancing with apologize and make comments that she needs more lessons or something like that. Sometimes this happens when they made a few mistakes, usually which a bad lead had something to do with, or I’ve led them successfully through things they weren’t familiar with but they followed beautifully.
• Dance to the understanding level of your partner to the best of you ability. Have FUN for a three minute relationship. Make your partner have fun. Put JOY in the dance and share the JOY with every partner.

Foot comfort is very importance in the art of dancing. When dance partners are not wearing ladies dance shoes and men’s dance shoes, they may end up not only with blisters, but also painful feet and legs. Typically, good men’s dance shoes are black lace-up Oxfords with a flat heel for standard dances and a 1 to 2-inch heel for Latin dances.

For women, basic designs include open- or closed-toe pumps and sandals. Choose dance shoes that fit perfectly so you can become the most skillful dancer you can be. As long as you have the passion to move to the groove, there should be no stopping you … ill-fitting dance shoes included.

At many local weekly dances, all the best dancers take over one corner of the room (like the “Cat’s Corner” of the old Savoy Ballroom) and the beginners tend to stay at the other end and dance with each other. You can see how it would be rather difficult to ask the good dancers to dance if they all hang out in a crowd and you have to barge in to even speak to them. So, make a special effort to get down to the beginners’ end every so often and ask someone for a dance. Resist falling into a clique at your local club: to outsiders, though you will be seen as the best dancers, you will also seem snobby and un-touchable.
Consider asking newbies: you were once one. Those experienced dancers who agreed to dance with you as a newbie gave you incentive (by “suffering” through with your learning) to keep going to reach a point of being a “decent dancer”. Do the same for the newbies you meet and make then feel welcome - it is an investment in your future dance partners. Remember, as a beginner you don’t know how perfectly right it feels for two people to dance as one until it happens to you for the first time. With your new ballroom dance shoes it happens sooner than expected.

“Dance with different people. Don’t fall into a bad habit or develop bad technique.” Dancing with many different partners helps. Besides practicing with your regular dance partners, go to some of the social dances that are available and mix. Everyone’s lead and follow is different, and the variations help you to become a better dancer. Dancing with someone more experienced might allow you to be more successful in trying something new or perfecting some styling. Once you learn how it feels, you can then do it with anybody. Dancing with someone less experienced than you is very good in determining if you have a good lead. This may even be more useful than dancing with someone more experienced. When you can get a less experienced dancer to successfully do a step she has never done before, you know you are doing well. If you dance only with one partner, you will never learn to lead/follow; you’ll only learn to compensate for each other’s bad habits. Always wear your low heel ballroom dance shoes if you are practicing more than an hour or two a day for more than a couple of days.

Social dancing is different than professional ballroom dancing. If you take professional dancing it is harder to social dance than if you have always just social danced. It is good to social dance to learn how to dance with different partners, learn different moves, etc. But I had rather learn professional ballroom dancing. It is more like the dancing I have always dreamed of. The moves in professional ballroom dancing is more in sync with the way I feel the music than when I social dance.
Either type of ballroom dancing you choose to do, or even if you choose to do both, it is imperative that you wear ballroom dance shoes for your dancing safety. Safety is not the only reason to wear ballroom dancing shoes, they make it a lot easier on the body to make the moves and you will not tire as easily as with regular street shoes.

So you’ve decided to learn some ballroom dancing and now realize that you need ballroom dance clothes. You’ve probably already seen ballroom dancing on TV shows such as Dancing With The Stars or in movies but you still aren’t exactly sure about what type of clothes you can and need to wear. The information below answers all those questions.
Out of all the clothing in ballroom dancing, the ballroom dance shoes are by far the most important. If you don’t have the right shoes, it can make the whole experience very difficult. The most important thing is that your shoes must possess leather or suede soles. However, these type of shoes should not be used elsewhere and should exclusively for ballroom dancing. The reason why you need these types of shoes is that some of the dances may involve sliding across the floor, and runners will not allow you to do this.

I have been a little under the weather and have not gone to a ballroom dance this week. That is really unusual for me, I almost always go the a Monday night dance party. When I miss it for one reason or the other, it really affects me. My mood is not as good and I seem like I have something that is not quite right about me. Any kind of physical activity that you do on a regular basis seems to be addictive. And maybe it really is.
When I am able to get on the dance floor and move to the music, in the arms of a man who really likes to dance, I have no worries about anything. You seem to be in a world where there is only the two of you, the music and the dance floor. You don’t hear the soft tap of your ballroom dance shoes on the floor. All you hear and feel is the music. You really are in a world where only dancers can go.

No one really likes to workout. You know, even if you have been working out for a long time, sometimes you still have to make yourself get up and do it. I even crave a good workout, at times. But what if you could workout and not even know you are working out. You are actually enjoying yourself and you hate when it ends. I think you know where I am going with this, of course it is ballroom dancing. It is one of the best workouts you can get. I really do look forward to dancing and I never have to talk myself into this “workout”. I usually don’t get real dressed up when I go ballroom dancing, but occasionally I do get dressed up and that makes it all the more interesting. I will wear something really nice and wear my open toe dance shoes. It really makes you feel like a dancer when you dress for the occasion.

With gentlemen’s and ladie’s closed-toe styles of ballroom dance shoes, the toes must be as close to the ends as possible without actually rubbing the ends. With any kind of open toe ballroom dance shoes, the toes must totally cover the soles of the shoes. In fact, it is best if the toes actually hang over the edges of the shoes by up to 1/4 inch. You will need to purchase new shoes if they have stretched so much that your feet slip inside them. When your feet are able to move inside your dance shoes, the quicker the shoes will stretch, get out of shape or totally wear out.  You may need to buy ballroom dances shoes narrow width or ballroom dances shoes wide width.
Leather shoes should be polished often and regularly so that they don’t look scuffed. In order to keep the suede soles from accumulating wax and dirt from the dance floors, you will need to brush them often. Wax buildup and dirt particles from the floor are attracted to the soft suede soles which cause them to wear out. For patent leather shoes, polish them with a silicone oil to keep them from cracking and sticking.
Do Not wear your ballroom dance shoes outside as they should be for dancing purposes only. They will wear out extremely fast and not function as well if you wear them outside. Ballroom dancing shoes are a vital part of your dance attire, and should only be used as such.

Most people that ballroom dance have a great sense of humor. My dance instructor makes my lessons really fun. I know that not all ballroom dance instructors would be the same, but the other instructor in the studio has a good sense of humor also. Being really good at what they do, a great personally is a big bonus to the student. When you can laugh and cut up while you are learning to dance, it seems to be easier. They are always a lot of laughter in the studio. On party nights, the dancing and the laughter go hand in hand. It is really a fun place to be.
They give you advice about what to wear in competitions and in shows. They like to wear outfits to match yours when you dance in a competition together. If you wear a brown outfit with brown ballroom dance shoes, he will wear a brown outfit with brown ballroom dance shoes for men. They also like to wear matching outfits when the two of you dance in a show together. Ballroom dance instructors are great people, go out and find a good one.

If everyone that even remotely thought they might like to learn how to do ballroom dancing would get out and do it, I would be a lot happier and so would they. You see, there is a shortage of male ballroom dancers. Men just assume they cannot dance. I’ve heard comments like “I have two left feet”, “I’m a clutch”, etc. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Men are usually more physically adaptable than women are. Men that play golf or go to the YMCA to work out or anything like would probably be really good at ballroom dancing. I have talked my brother-in-law and my nephew into taking lessons and they both thought they would hate it and that they would be no good. I even thought my brother-in-law would not be any good. But guess what, they both love it and they both were very good at it.
Men have another advantage over women. Their ballroom dance shoes come in heel heights no higher than 1.5 inches and most are just 1″. They are real good considering that women normally dance in nothing shorter than 2.5 inch heels. Men also normally do not need to have but 2 or 3 colors of shoes, black, brown and maybe white. Women may not need more, but we sure love having a pair of every color that we have clothes to wear them with, and some that we do not have clothes to wear with them ;-). You get the point. Women love their red ballroom dance shoes in 3-inch heels, along with every other color of the spectrum.

Ballroom dance shoes can be really gorgeous shoes or just practical shoes or some times both. The practice shoes are made to be practical because you wear them a lot, so they need to be really comfortable. The standard ballroom dance shoe is really pretty and it is also very comfortable. For me I wear the higher heels, 2.5 or 3-inch heels and this is very appealing. But if you wear heels that high for very many hours a week, your feet will hurt, no matter how comfortable the shoe. That is why traditionally, women wear the lower heeled shoe for practice and higher heels for actually dancing.
The shoes you wear in a show should really match what you are wearing. Shoes come in enough different colors to match any color of dress, gown, or outfit you can buy. There are yellow, pink, and even mirage ballroom dance shoes. The mirage color is an array of multiple colors. It is really a pretty shoe and the different colors will go with any shade of the base color.

The simple joy of ballroom dancing is absolutely amazing to me. Since I was a small child, I have dreamed of dancing the waltz in the arms of my love. Well, I have settled with just dancing it with a really good dancer. I feel almost as strong about the tango. Both dances, to me, have every emotion that is involved in a human relationship. I have been taking ballroom dance lessons for about eighteen months. I have gotten a lot better at both dances, but not quite where I want to be. I was in a show at the studio where I take lessons. The owner, who is also an instruction, choreographed the dance for me and he incorporated both the waltz and tango into the choreograph. I really had a great time performing this show and hope to do more in the future.
I have also gone through one weekend of competitions. I most certainly did not do what I had hoped. But then I was only dancing for about six months when I was in the competition. You also need to wear the proper clothing to get the attention of the judges in a competition. When practicing for the competition, you will be dancing a couple of hours a day three to five days a week. To keep your feet from getting really tired, you need practice ballroom dance shoes. They are not as high heeled and are a solid shoe from toe to heel to stabilize your feet more. It is always wise to have these shoes when you do a lot of dancing in a short period of time. Taking care of your feet is a must to be a dancer.

Ballroom dancing consist of more than 15 different dances. Each one distinct in its own way. But they are all fun and challenging. The waltz and cha cha are probably the more popular dances but most of the others are just as satisfying. Dances like the swing and rumba are considered to be Latin or rythmn dances and you can buy shoes specifically made for these dances. Latin dance shoes are considered to be just a little more, should I say, sexy than standard ballroom shoes. I like the open toed with just a small opening in the toe. If that opening is too big my feet seem to slip through the end, but a lot of women like the toe like that. I do not think my feet actually slip through, they just make me think they could. Try both and see which you like the best.

The ballroom dance shoe is lighter in weight than regular shoes.  They have added padding in the insole so your feet remain comfortable while dancing.  You can’t have heavy, clumpy shoes when dancing the waltz or the cha-cha.  You need to be as light as possible.  These shoes have suede soles and that is the recommended material for ballroom dancing.

There are different styles, sizes and colors.  And you don’t have to worry about the width of your feet because they have regular, narrow and wide widths.  Anybody who is into dancing can grab his or her perfect pair of dancing shoes right now.  And if you are not yet into dancing, go ahead and try it.  It could be the best thing you can do for your wife or husband.  Now you can dance during parties.

It is so easy to find your perfect pair of dance shoes online.  Just go online and check out the different sites that offer dance shoes.  There is an assortment of colors and styles you can choose from.  So, you won’t go to your next dancing session wearing sneakers.

Your dance shoes have to fit perfectly.  You will really be on your toes for a while when you go dancing so your shoes have to be very comfortable.  And they are very stylish so that they will really go with your outfit and costumes.  You can now go dancing in style whether you are in competition or just dancing for fun and exercise.

Most men have been conditioned to believe that they are not good dancers. They say things like “I have two left feet” or “I have no rhythm”. When in reality they can be and are as good as and in some cases better than women when dancing. They need to get over the old things that were put in their heads. When I watch a man ballroom dance, I am awestruck. It amazes me that more men do not get out there and ballroom dance.
Men can buy shoes in any color just as women, brown ballroom dance shoes or white. Black is the traditional, but tries to buy something that makes you stand out in the crowd. If you really want to make an impression on that special lady in your life, learn  ballroom dancing. You will be amazed at the pride she will have while dancing with you.