Thread: Student who wears lift in her shoes

Hi, Beautiful Bhuz Instructors,
After many years I am resuming teaching regular classes. So far it's a blast. I have a question that I don't know the answer to, so I am hoping to pick your collective brains. I have a student who normally wears a lift in one shoe because her legs are different lengths. It is a small lift, I think she said about one inch, but she was wondering if she should wear dance shoes with the lift during class.

Does anyone know? Does anyone here dance with this issue, and how did you work around it?

This student is a brand new beginner, not super young. I would really like for her to have a good class experience.

Thanks in advance, wise Bhuzzers!

If she needs a 1" lift she should be wearing dance sneakers with a lift in them.

This is to preserve her spinal alignment and prevent injury. I would only reccomend a dance sneaker because the lift can cause ankle instability when using other dance shoes.

My mom has a difference in her leg length (childhood polio) and when she took dance classes, she danced with her regular shoes. The difference in length is a bit bigger than your student (I think like 1.5") but she felt much more comfortable and could do more of the movements safely with her own modified sneakers on.

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know of a good source for the dance sneakers?

Like these on Amazon.com?

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Unisex-Split-Sole-Canvas-Dance-Sneaker/dp/B0002UU5O4"]Amazon.com: Unisex Split-Sole Canvas Dance Sneaker - DN520L: Shoes[/ame]

She should try them on with her lift. Ask about local dance stores she could go to. There are many different brands and a wide range of prices. I am happy with my Bloch's. I think they were about $45.

Originally Posted by dunyah

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know of a good source for the dance sneakers?

Like these on Amazon.com?

Amazon.com: Unisex Split-Sole Canvas Dance Sneaker - DN520L: Shoes

That's the same ones I use for classes like Zumba, and my own BD cardio class. They are super comfortable and durable, and I love the split sole flexibility. I even sometimes wear them when not working out, because they make my feet feel great.

i have a difference in lengths due to crushing my femur a long time ago.. (about 3/4 inch). and I have found that most options for dance shoes didn't work with a lift. Mind you I never tried dance sneakers, and now I see lots of people using them.. including Yousry Sharif. eventually I just adapted to the change. Yes I know, its not the best for me, but thats just the way it happened.

So I vote dance sneakers. as for on stage.. I don't know! I had a lift put on the heel of a hermes sandal when I first started.. and I'm sure it could work for short performances.

I have a height discrepancy to from breaking my pelvic joint. I wear a 1/4 in lift. When I'm in class, I bandage my ankle because its always been weak from breaking it and I just wrap my shoe lift to my foot. Its actually nice and secure.

One of my legs is 1/2 inch longer than the other. When I was 17, my doctors urged me to start wearing a lift on that side to even out my leg length - they were concerned that doing without a lift could make my scoliosis worse. Well, I rarely use a lift, and my scoliosis has NOT gotten worse over the years. But I digress....

I have been told by dance teachers that my differing leg length affects my centering. They say that as my weight shifts from one leg to the other, my center shifts, and they say that it will be impossible for me to center properly so long as I dance without a lift.

So... I do have a pair of dance shoes with a lift. For information:

• Go to this page of my web site: To the Tips of Your Toes: Belly Dance Costuming for Your Feet
• Pick "Footwear and Health" from the right-hand column of my table of contents
• Scroll down to the picture that shows a pair of shoes with a tuxedo kitty. (Mitt insisted on being part of the picture.)
• Click on that picture with my cat, which will show you a larger version of that photo.
• You will see a pair of Hermes sandals. One is an original, unmodified shoe. The other is one that has had a lift added.

Hermes sandals have a sole that is well-suited to having such a lift added, which is why I chose them as opposed to a different type of dance shoe.

Your student can take a suitable shoe (such as a Hermes sandal) to a normal shoe repair shop. She should take along the diagram on that web page referenced above that appears just below the cat picture - the drawing that shows the sandal, the rubber layer, and the leather layer. She can click on that drawing to get a large version suitable for printing and taking in. She should tell the shoe repair shop what height of lift is needed, and tell them it needs to have a layer of leather at the bottom, to ensure that the shoe will pivot properly on spins, Arabesques, and other pivoting moves. She should make sure they know that the thickness of the leather should be factored in when crafting the lift. I recommend asking them to make the lift thinner over the arch area to allow the sole to be flexible.

It's a pretty simple process that any shoe repair shop should be able to do. The only sticky part is just communicating what you want done, but hopefully my diagrams will help with that.

My sandal with the lift is comfortable. The padding provides a nice cushion, so I will often wear these when I go to all-day dance workshops just because I find them more comfortable for that length of time than going barefoot.

Regarding dance sneakers...

I have a pair. They're okay if your class does NOT involve any pivoting (spins, half-turns, Arabesques, etc.) However, if you have ANY pivoting at all, I would steer your student away from them. Reason: they have very "grippy" soles, and they don't pivot well at all. I made the mistake of wearing a pair for a Mahmoud Reda workshop, and my knees torqued so badly on all those pivoting steps that they were sore for two months. I'm not exaggerating - it was bad enough that I was worried that I might have done long-term damage. But eventually they healed fully, it just took a couple of months. I haven't worn my dance sneakers since.

Thanks for all the wonderful information, Shira, AllysLuma, et al! This student is just beginning, it's her first belly dance class ever. I don't know if she will want to invest in Hermes sandals but I will pass that on. Shira, your website is an amazing encyclopedia of helpful knowledge about dance.

For now, perhaps she can use AllysLuma's idea of wrapping the lift to her foot with an elastic bandage and wearing ballet slippers or something. Would that work, do you think?

I have a leg length discrepancy (1/2 inch), and I have to wear shoes. If I don't, my back gets messed up. All of my shoes, including low cabaret heels, have lifts. I've used several methods of getting the right height difference. These all require dance shoes that have at least a little heel so you (or the shoe repair guy) have something to work with.

Speaking of shoe repair folks, it has been worthwhile for me to find a good repair person who can do this. Some repair guys wouldn't do this sort of work or say it's not possible, so when I found a good one, I stuck with him.

This is what I've done on various shoes:

- on the short leg shoe, a quarter inch lift inside the heel cup, and a quarter inch on the bottom of the heel itself

- the whole half inch either inside or outside

- decreasing the heel height on the longer leg shoe by a quarter inch and increasing the heel height on the shorter leg shoe by a quarter inch

Good luck!