Ballroom Dancing Classes - How Ballroom Shoes Will Advance Your Dancing Quick and Add More Enjoyable

What makes a big difference to your enjoyment together with advancement in ballroom dance classes and ballroom dancing in general is your footwear. Like a musician with their drum, a dancer's musical instrument are their ballroom dance shoes.

If you are enrolled in ballroom dancing classes in your bare feet, flip-flops, footwear, tennis shoes, running shoes, stilettos, platform shoes, footwear, slippers, dress shoes or anything else. you are doing yourself a major disservice in your efforts to figure out how to ballroom dance.

Why? Because you are spending hours dancing on the feet and if you are wearing street shoes rather then ballroom shoes, you are practicing incorrectly and in addition experiencing the following troubles:

• Slipping on dance floor - most leather soled and some synthectic soled street shoes are slippery for a wood floor. Most ballroom dancing classes are held on wood dance floors. This is even more dangerous for beginners as beginners are generally not as balanced. You may slip, fall or twist your ankles particularly when wearing high-heeled street shoes. A lot of high-heeled street shoes may not be constructed well to balance the body over the heels. Resorting, spinning swivelling, or any kind of fast changes of recommendations becomes scary.
• Sticking to dance floor - the majority sneakers, tennis shoes etc or shoes with rubber soles will 'stick' to your wood dance floor together with make it difficult that you move your feet easily. East Coast Swing, Salsa/Mambo, Jive, Cha-Cha, Samba, Viennese Waltz and Quickstep will be particularly challenging because of the speed of these dances. You will have difficulty executing the correct technique as you will need to glide from foot to foot and articulate your toes from Heel to Foot or Toe to Heel or using the inside edge of ones foot etc. In ballroom dance, other than tango together with jive, we do not pick up our feet when we move from step to step. You will also have difficulty changing directions enjoy in pivoting, turning, spinning or swivelling and will hurt your knees whenever you try to use your upper body to compensate for your feet not turning.
• Clunky or stomping - you feel really clumsy, your feet feel large and clunky and you simply feel like you are clumping or stomping through your steps. You are most likely dancing in tennis shoes. Tennis shoes are bulky so you will never be able to close your feet properly - the bulk gets in the manner. This will encourage bad habits when you will always dance with your feet and legs a part even when it's said to be closed in particular steps. Platform shoes also get this similar clunky effect due to the extra weight and not enough flex in the soles of the shoes. For men wearing athletic shoes you will keep running into the sides of the lady's feet when you are trying to step between their feet. Men's dress shoes are clunky as they are wider than men's ballroom move shoes. stubbed toes or ripped toe nails - this happens to the majority ladies who insist with wearing open toe footwear while dancing with starter leaders. The leaders are just learning how to lead and if they are not conditioned proper technique, they will invariably step in the lady's feet. If your ladies are wearing open toe shoes, this will result in pain and quite quite often, a ripped toe nail bed. So ladies, please wear closed toe shoes as soon as dancing with beginner males. Men - learn the technique on how to lead properly before it starts and you will never step for a lady's toes.

Ballroom dancing shoes are specially constructed so they are balanced in the right places especially over that arch and heels of your feet. They also flex in the right places and have suede bottoms.

Ballroom shoes fit your toes like a glove and there is no bulky material around your feet so you can close your feet accordingly. On ballroom dance floors, suede bottoms provide the best combination of glide and grip capability. Better ballroom shoes are extremely flexible and allow you to articulate your feet for example. 'point' your feet, articulate from heel on the ball of your feet for a toes or inside edge of ball of ankle to whole foot and combinations thereof.

This articulation of your feet is important in developing your capacity dance and is what will assist you to develop grace, fluidity and power in your dancing. It all starts in your feet and good ballroom dancing shoes. Every ballroom dance has specific techniques when it comes to foot articulation (footwork) showing the character of your dance. Waltz and Foxtrot uses Heel Toe, Toe, Bottom Heel, Toe Heel Ft etc. Salsa uses Tennis ball Flat. Tango uses Heel, Toe Heel, inside sides of ball of ankle etc.

It is a great idea if you take a whole lot of ballroom dancing classes to wear Ballroom dancing practice shoes which might be more covered and possess a lower heel. Then it is possible to save your feet together with higher-heeled Ballroom dancing footwear for social dancing, tasks or competitions.

Enough claimed, stop dancing in your street shoes and pick a good pair of ballroom dancing shoes. You will be amazed at the amount more balanced you can feel and how much easier it will be for you to shift from step to step, glide, turn, pivot, rewrite or swivel. And you will enjoy your ballroom dance classes more.

Published February 5th, 2012

Tags: dance, lessons, ballroom, PALMDALE, California, dancing