Thread: What do your beginners wear on their feet?

Mine keep wanting to wear socks in class! That is NOT ok with me, I think it's dangerous.

Some of them don't want to be barefoot, for various reasons. (cold floor, strong feelings about hygiene or people seeing their feet, difficulty pivoting, etc).

I hate to ask them to buy special dance shoes for a class they're just trying out for the first time. (though I may start requiring dance shoes for level 2 and up).

What do your beginners wear?

a lot of gals in my class wear ballet slippers. you can get them really cheap in sports stores. maybe suggest that to the girls who don't want to go barefoot?

Payless Shoe source will sometimes have ballet or Jazz shoes pretty cheap. I wear a gymnast slipper. Its like a ballet slipper but without the bulky padding and has suede on the sole.

We don't allow folks to go barefoot at our studio. We ask them to wear slippers or something similiar until they decide they want to spend the money for dance shoes.

How about those hospital slippers with the silicone pads on the bottom?

In both of my classes the teachers recommend that we wear either dance shoes or socks, too much chance of torqing the knee in a spin if the foot happens to stick to the floor.

One of my teachers also said that practicing in socks, and it being a bit slippery, also forces you to watch your balance more closely.

My teacher recommends Isotoner slippers.

Mine usually wear bare feet, but if they want to wear socks its okay with me. Though we have wood floors the finish on it is weird. Your feet stick when trying to pivot. So its not that slippery with socks. If it had a regular finish then socks would be to slippery.

I Usually wear dance paws or my jazz shoes.

I'm usually one of the only students that goes barefoot... everyone else just wears socks. But it probably depends on the floor because another studio I went to forbids socks and I didn't know why until I nearly slipped on that floor!

I always am barefoot but I have known gals who wore ballet slippers from Payless. This website also has various inexpensive options: Discount Dance Supply

Mine either wear bare feet, those gold leather egyptian dance shoes, or cheapo socks with non slip pads on the bottom. The socks have to be those cheap ones (99 pence each!) with the small non slip pads, as they allow free movement while preventing slips. More expensive socks (like isotoner) with big non slip pads cause knee jarring. I've been wearing them for ages, and I've never fallen over. In our climate, they keep my feet toasty too.

Ballet slippers -- split sole, preferably. They are not expensive -- can you get a teacher's discount at a local dance supply store? Maybe you could buy a small quantity and mark them up just a little bit to cover your time in getting them to the studio?

I am phobic about walking around dirty floors in bare feet, so I, and now all my classmates wear Bloch S0205L from a local shop, apparently Bloch doesn't do direct orders (?)Bloch - Dansoft
I think they were $12.
Those who originally went with house slippers all regret it because those have too much "grip," and have converted to these dansofts. We would have loved to have been able to buy them direct from our studio.

I had a student once, in socks, slip during a Saidi practice. I watched in horror, the whole thing was in crazy slow motion -- her feet went out from under her and up in the air -- for a moment she seemed like she was suspended there, like a magician was levitating her -- then she came down HARD on her back and the back of her head.

This wasn't an especially young and limber woman. It was a MIRACLE she wasn't hurt. Luckily that was at another studio, with sprung wood floors. A fall like that on the hard floors at my studio would have put her in the hospital!

So no socks in my studio! I can definitely see the potential torquing problem. I have that issue more on low-pile carpets at workshops held in hotel ballrooms, but I imagine it depends on your feet (calloused, sweaty, etc). but my beginners don't do a great deal of turning, just 3-step turns and mini-pivots, so I'd rather worry about falling safety than turning safety if I have to choose.

I thought about stocking shoes, but stocking a full variety of sizes would be more of an ongoing hassle than I'm prepared to deal with. There are dance supply stores nearby, and Payless carries them for under $20 or you can buy them online for $12, so they're not hard to come by if people want them.

Lots of good suggestions in this thread, keep 'em coming!

thats the great thing about the non-slip socks, they're in one size only. I too have seen bad accidents with people wearing normal socks and falling over in class.

Check Walmart, Target, etc for their own brand of Isotoner-type slippers. Lots of colors, machine washable and quite affordable. For extra cushion add padded inserts or even gel inserts. Extra comfy and added warmth when dancing on cold floors.

Most of my students wear ballet or jazz shoes. I prefer the "teacher" style with a slight heel because I have high arches.

One student with foot/ankle problems wears dance sneakers. I don't like them for turning but if you need more stability for the foot, they are better than tennis shoes.

I have one dancer who goes barefoot. She also studies Modern though and is used to dancing without shoes.

I allow socks but most of my students prefer more padding since the wood floor is pretty cold and hard for our old, tired feet. The dogs are really barkin' by the end of my class! LOL! ..l;,

For beginners (Level 1) I give them the option of barefoot or dance slippers (half-sole, e.g. Foot Undeez), but most seem content to be barefoot (there's not a lot of footwork/turning in Level 1)...but usually when the move into Level 2 they make the decision on their own to move to dance slippers (and I start pushing harder for them to wear footwear at that point).

At one of my locations I DO allow socks, though, because the floor is heavily varnished to the point where even suede-soled dance slippers stick like mad. In that case I feel the socks are the safer option.

Ouch! Insurance nightmare!

"Foot undeez" might be appealing to some. They only cover the ball of the foot, make spins a little easier but are not as slippery as socks. You can get them at dance supply stores; here is one such link:
Dance Shoes - Dancewear Solutions

Bare feet, socks (I wear them) or dance shoes.

Deborah

Bare feet. Socks are okay if feet are cold in warm up but they come off. Our studio is really clean but the floor is a little slippery so bare feet are the best.

Most of mine wear bare feet or socks, although I personally wear Foot Undeeze and recommend them strongly. The floors at the locations I teach at are not very slippery - I doubt the ones with wood floors have been re-varnished in the last 20 years! And my other location has low pile carpet so no chance of slipping there.

Bare feet. I have a fast moving warm-up - so most learn not to wear socks! A few wear ballet slippers (which is what I wear at workshops but not at the studio)

Bare feet or dance shoes....no socks or bedroom slippers!

~~Kimahri

How much is too much for shoes? I go barefoot but I have canvas split sole ballet shoes that were $20 from the local dance store.

$20. That's not too much to ask.

I allow my beginners to go barefoot or wear socks, but most of them discover that socks are not ideal. My intermediates and up are required to have shoes and cannot dance in socks. They are still welcome to dance barefoot though. Most of them don the foot undees of their own volition, which is fine by me!

Originally Posted by yaalini

How much is too much for shoes? I go barefoot but I have canvas split sole ballet shoes that were $20 from the local dance store.

$20. That's not too much to ask.

I paid 45.00 for my jazz shoes. My view is you get what you pay for. I am going to get another pair before I head down to Cali. These are more sneaker style Jazz shoes with a lot more cushion. Spending six hours in releve a day is really hard on the tootsies......

Originally Posted by yaalini

How much is too much for shoes? I go barefoot but I have canvas split sole ballet shoes that were $20 from the local dance store.

$20. That's not too much to ask.

I agree, but I'm talking about students who've just spent $54 to register for a session and they're not even sure yet if they're going to like it.

But, they are also free to go barefoot so it's an optional expense. I think ballet slippers or half-soles or dance paws are ideal. I'm not crazy about bedroom slippers -- there may be some styles that are appropriate, like the isotoners, but I don't want to get into making judgements on individual types.

Well since the parks and rec building I'm in is aimed at seniors, we have a lovely no-skid wax on the floor so even socks don't slide much. Since we also don't have any stores here locally that supply dance shoes I recomend socks, ballet style houseslippers, any shoes that allow their feet to flex, or barefoot.
I have told gals that if they find the floor at all slippery with socks on to cut the heel out of them (yes I recomend not spending a lot on the socks) so they have some traction. One gal who's been with me for years is always hunting up those socks with the toes in them then cutting the toe ends and heels off so she still has the sock under the ball of her foot for turns and still has traction on the floor. My big problem out here is convincing them that flip flops and slide on sandels are not a good idea for class.